5 Tips To Green Your Business Fleet

The 2011 Leaf - Nissan's New All-Electric Car.

Many businesses have their own vehicle fleets to ship items or carry out business activities. Such businesses have a significant carbon footprint from transportation that can be reduced by taking simple and big steps towards reducing fuel consumption. In the long-run, most of these steps can accrue significant savings to businesses with vehicle fleets. Here we provide five tips your business can take to green its fleet.

1) Purchase hybrid or plug-in vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on a combination of gasoline and electricity, while plug-in vehicles run entirely on electricity, increasing energy efficiency substantially. These options can help reduce fuel consumption drastically, saving money in the long term.

2) Run trucks on biodiesel. Diesel engines are becoming increasingly more efficient for trucks than gasoline engines. The newest models are polluting far less. In addition, these engines can run on biodiesel, an increasingly popular fuel that can substantially reduce emissions. Whenever possible, try running your trucks on biodiesel.

3) Conduct regular maintenance. To ensure that your car is burning fuel efficiently, make sure you give it a tune-up regularly (including keeping tires filled up well). This will help keep the engine running smoothly. In addition, every time you change an essential liquid, like motor oil, make sure you discard of it appropriately.

4) Opt for car-sharing program. If your business’ use is sparse and you’re in a metropolitan area, consider opting for a car-sharing program instead. This will allow you to drop the cost of keeping an unused vehicle and also save substantially on carbon emissions. Examples are ZipCar and WeCar.

5) Avoid unnecessary rides. If your destination is reachable using public transportation, encourage the use of public transportation instead. Only keep vehicle use for destinations out of bounds by public transport.