With rising fuel costs and growing worldwide concern about global warming, Ann Arbor is right on target with its Green Fleets program.

Adopted in 2004, the Green Fleets program goals are to cut vehicle emissions and reduce the city’s gasoline and diesel use. The Green Fleets Policy team spent a year researching programs in other cities and creating a database of all the city’s vehicles and fuel-using equipment to determine strategies for cutting gasoline consumption.

According to Matt Kulhanek, city fleet and facilities manager, “The Green Fleets Policy establishes guidelines for the city to reduce our carbon footprint by purchasing fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles, using alternative fuels, and improving the operational efficiency of the city fleet.”

The original goal of the Green Fleets policy was to reduce the city’s gasoline and diesel use by 10 percent by 2012. This goal was met in 2006, the second year of the program.

In 2006, gasoline and diesel use was cut to 317,470 gallons, a reduction of 11 percent from the baseline consumption of 356,524 gallons in 2003. In 2007, gasoline and diesel fuel use was further reduced to 308,183 gallons, a total reduction of 14 percent from 2003 levels, primarily due to an increase in ethanol and biodiesel use.

Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel that is made in the United States from renewable products such as corn, wheat, and barley. All city gasoline vehicles currently run on E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. Although E10 is not considered an alternative fuel by federal standards, it still burns cleaner than 100 percent gasoline, resulting in lower emissions, cleaner engines, and lower maintenance costs.

E85, which is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, does qualify as an alternative fuel. The city has federal grant funds to pay for 80 percent of the cost to construct an E85 fueling facility for city fleet vehicles to be constructed this summer.
Biodiesel, another domestic-produced, renewable fuel made primarily from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases, also reduces air pollutants. In the winter, the city biodiesel vehicles run on B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum. In the warmer months, they run on B30 to B50, blends of 30 percent and 50 percent biodiesel.

The Green Fleets Policy calls for the city to select the most cost-effective, lowest emission, smallest-size vehicles that meet the city’s operational needs. Within a given year, 10 percent of the purchased vehicles will be alternative fuel vehicles that run on natural gas, propane, ethanol, biodiesel, or electricity.

Since green vehicles are more expensive than traditional vehicles, the Green Fleets guidelines allow for the purchase of green vehicles at up to 20 percent above the lowest available price for a comparable conventional vehicle.

The city fleet currently includes 183 alternative fuel vehicles: two natural gas heavy-duty trucks, 13 other natural gas vehicles, two neighborhood electric vehicles, seven E85 patrol cars, two E85 vans, and more than 150 biodiesel-powered pieces of equipment.

The Green Fleets team evaluates the program yearly, which allows the program plan to be updated to reflect new technologies that best develop a leaner, “greener” fleet of city vehicles. The team reviews the database of city vehicles and fuel-powered equipment, checking fuel efficiency; fuel consumption; annual miles driven; and vehicle emissions for carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide.

All city vehicles are inspected yearly and the team updates the mileage standards for new vehicle purchases. Light-duty vehicles older than seven years and heavy-duty vehicles older than 10 years are evaluated for retirement from the fleet, with the recommendation of the fleet manager or department heads. The current fleet size is approximately 350 vehicles, a 17 percent reduction from 2003’s fleet size of 420 vehicles.

The city’s reduction in gasoline and diesel use has decreased air pollution, particularly by cutting carbon dioxide emissions -- the main greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Total greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 8 percent from 2003 levels.

According to Dave Konkle, Ann Arbor’s energy coordinator, “We still have a lot of work to do, but the reduction in fossil fuel use through the Green Fleets program are an important component in meeting the Mayor's Energy Challenge for a 30 percent greenhouse gas reduction by 2010.”

More at www.a2gov.org/energy.