6 more big businesses turn toward federal 'Clean Fleets' program

A half-dozen companies with some of the biggest corporate fleets in the United States have officially joined the National Clean Fleets Partnership. The program, run by the U.S. Department of Energy, was announced back in April 2011 as part of the Obama Administration's mission to cut U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025.

The new companies, which together own about 1 million commercial vehicles, are:

• Coca-Cola: Owner of the largest hybrid fleet in North America.
• Enterprise Holdings: Pioneer of electric vehicle rentals.
• General Electric: The company is planning to convert at least half of its global vehicles; with a deployment of 25,000 electric vehicles planned by 2015.
• OSRAM Sylvania: The lighting giant is aiming to replace 10 percent to 12 percent of its fleet annually with more energy-efficient technologies.
• Ryder: Just opened a natural gas vehicle maintenance facility to support hundreds of heavy-duty trucks.
• Staples: Has already improved fuel economy by more than 20 percent since 2007; testing electric delivery trucks in Ohio and California.

Their addition more than doubles the number of involved companies, which also includes charter members: AT&T, FedEx, PepsiCo, UPS and Verizon.

• FedEx adds to electric vehicles, energy-efficient fleet
• Report: Green fleet explosion by 2015
• UPS expands long-haul, natural gas fleets
• AT&T adds more alternative-fuel vehicles to service fleet
• Three organizations pledge to drive 20% cut in fleet emissions
• Electrifying: PepsiCo, UPS progress on fleet updates
• Survey: Half of corporate fleets now under emissions scrutiny
• How to put the brakes on fleet emissions

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com