Greening Your Fleet: Focus On Business Improvements
With all the pressures fleet managers face on a daily basis, “green” issues are probably not at the top of the agenda. But the cost of fuel is a burden for any business with vehicles, particularly when prices escalate and environmental legislation continues to become more restrictive.
Company boards increasingly recognize the customer and shareholder appeal of corporate social responsibility policies in which the environment is a focal point. It makes good economic and social sense, then, to understand the size of a company’s carbon footprint and to find ways to reduce and manage it.
For businesses that rely on their fleet, vehicles are obviously a key area of focus when considering the company’s carbon footprint. Careful fleet planning can be done in ways that will, in the long run, reduce the footprint and save money.
“Greening” the fleet takes time, given the investments and long term contracts required to purchase new, more environmentally friendly vehicles. There is, however, another way to reduce your company’s carbon footprint, one that you can start immediately. It has to do with how your vehicles are allocated and scheduled to reduce total mileage and footprint, and training your drivers in an eco-friendly driving style to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions
Through careful management, improving fleet operations can result in immediate environmental gains as well as cost savings. As with all business improvements, good measurement based on sound data is the key. The essential questions are: where are you today; where do you want to be tomorrow; and what progress are you making along the way?
Over the next few blog posts, we’ll explore ways to make these changes and how to implement best practices.
