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Green Fleets
In local governments everywhere streets are swept, neighborhoods patrolled and important business conducted every day with vehicles owned by local governments. Maintaining a vehicle fleet is a key component of local governments' operations. Operating a fleet of vehicles comes at a price, however. Beyond the monetary cost, fleet vehicles represent a significant source of air pollution. Also, every gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel burned releases about 22 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2), the major pollutant causing global warming. Now local governments are looking to greener alternatives to cut pollution and lower costs.
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN have partnered with Toyota to give each each city's park and recreation departments a 3 year lease on 10 hybrid vehicles as well as $100,000 a year in funding in return for name recognition in the 2008 Star of the North Games. For more information check out this article in the Star Tribune.
Green limousines?! Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, NY announced in February, 2008 that the
entire fleet of roughly 10,000 limousines that carry upper class passengers to
destinations throughout the city will be required to meet new fuel efficiency
standards: 25 miles a gallon by 2009 and 30 miles a gallon by 2010. Officials estimate that the limos in use
currently average about 12 to 15 miles a gallon, and emit 272,000 tons of
greenhouse gases into the air each year. For more information check out this article in the New York Times.
Columbus, Ohio, has chosen to reduce the size of the vehicles in their city fleet by replacing
many of the state's mid-size sedans with the more fuel-efficient Ford
Focus. The plan is to slowly overhaul
the fleet eliminating mid-size sedans like the Chevy Impala for the smaller
Focus. Savings will be netted by a lower purchase price as well as fuel
savings. Essentially, the new plan requires that state agencies have detailed
explanations for why they need midsize cars instead of the Focus.
The City and County
of Denver, Colorado, operate a combined fleet of 3,500 vehicles. Faced with rising
fuel costs, increased air pollution, and Federal mandates to clean the city's
air, Denver
enacted the "Green Fleets" executive order on Earth Day in 1993. Managers of Denver City
fleets must purchase the most cost-effective and lowest emission vehicle
possible, and fuel efficiency standards are included in procurement
specifications. The Green Fleets review process also includes
"right-sizing" fleets by reducing vehicle size and eliminating old
and underused vehicles. The effectiveness of the program is measured by fleet
energy use and CO2 emissions.
In December 1993 the City Council in Santa Monica, California, adopted a Reduced-Emissions Fuels (REF) Policy for City vehicle purchases which recommends that the City purchase REF vehicles whenever possible in accordance with the findings of an operational review conducted by staff. In addition it directs staff to conduct an annual operational analysis to ensure that recommended fuel types are consistent with current technology.
New York City's green fleet law requires the city to purchase the lowest emission vehicles available and significantly reduce the sum total CO2 emissions for the entire fleet. There are now approximately 1,500 hybrid electric vehicles in a fleet of about 13,000. The city is constantly replacing older vehicles with hybrids and increasing the number by hundreds of vehicles each year.
