The City of Guelph is among 12 Ontario municipalities, chosen from 50, to take part in a comprehensive E3® (Energy, Environment, Excellence) fleet review offered by the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance (CEEA), in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the Ontario Ministry of Finance.
Continuing to work towards ‘greening’ its fleet makes good environmental and economic sense for the City of Guelph,” explains Bill Barr, the City’s Manager of Fleet Services. “Programs such as Fleet Challenge Ontario help to increase fuel efficiency, reduce emissions, and reduce costs.”
The review, part of the Fleet Challenge Ontario program, is one of three components available to the City of Guelph to help it ‘green’ its fleet. The City will also have the opportunity to participate in fleet management workshops, and receive a best practices manual to help with improving fleet efficiencies.
The program is intended to assist Ontario municipalities reduce their fleet fuel consumption, operating costs and tailpipe emissions through sharing of modern fleet management techniques and proven best management practices.
Reducing fleet fuel consumption is of particular interest, as for 2008, the City fleet has budgeted for 2,300,000 litres of bio-diesel fuel, 510,000 litres of diesel fuel, 180,000 litres of coloured diesel fuel and 319,000 litres of gasoline.
The concept of a national green fleet rating system, now known as E3, emerged in 2004. The concept came to fruition with the realization there were green building rating systems such as LEED®, but nothing similar for commercial vehicle fleets.