Need a Green Fleet Policy?

As fed­eral, state, and local gov­ern­ments look to estab­lish envi­ron­men­tal guide­lines and reg­u­la­tions, envi­ron­men­tal issues have become a large focus within orga­ni­za­tions. Fleet selec­tion and man­age­ment stand out as an influ­en­tial piece of a company’s over­all plan for poten­tial change and/or compliance.

Cor­po­rate vehi­cles are a highly vis­i­ble sym­bol of a company’s envi­ron­men­tal impact, and one where there are var­i­ous oppor­tu­ni­ties to make real reduc­tions in green­house gas emis­sions. Sig­nif­i­cant long-term strate­gies are not as sim­ple to achieve as they may appear, how­ever, and ad hoc changes and short-term solu­tions quickly become dif­fi­cult to imple­ment, man­age, and assess. Affect­ing envi­ron­men­tal change within a fleet is a plan­ning process with for­mal pol­icy cre­ation at the cen­ter. But the ques­tion on the minds of fleet man­agers is how to cre­ate a viable fleet envi­ron­men­tal pol­icy. Care­fully lay­ing out the steps can make this process manageable.

• Orga­ni­za­tional Assess­ment: What are the over­all cor­po­rate goals and pri­or­i­ties regard­ing envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives, and how does fleet fit in?
• Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of Key Stake­hold­ers: Who are the key play­ers out­side of fleet that need to be engaged in the process?
• Fleet Assess­ment & Envi­ron­men­tal Base­line: How will the struc­ture, com­po­si­tion, and appli­ca­tion require­ments of the fleet deter­mine what is achiev­able? What is the cur­rent car­bon foot­print of the fleet so suc­cess can be measured?
• Defin­ing Goals: Estab­lish­ing a time­line for long-term goals, and deter­min­ing how to mean­ing­fully mea­sure achievement.
• Devel­op­ing Strat­egy: Defin­ing short-term goals and strate­gies to con­tin­u­ally move toward long-term objectives.
• Ongo­ing Man­age­ment: Defined process for track­ing emis­sions and mea­sur­ing per­for­mance toward goals.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Strat­egy: Devel­op­ing an inter­nal and exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan to explain ini­tia­tives and pro­mote successes.
• Assess­ing Achieve­ments: Eval­u­at­ing per­for­mance toward estab­lished mile­stones and set­ting new tar­gets for emis­sions reductions.

Con­clu­sion:

Once you have a man­date to cre­ate a green fleet pol­icy, it’s impor­tant to fol­low a care­fully planned process so that imple­men­ta­tion is suc­cess­ful. Strong lead­er­ship buy-in and a com­pre­hen­sive com­mu­ni­ca­tion plan are key com­po­nents in the process. For more infor­ma­tion about cre­at­ing a green fleet pol­icy, you can con­tact Donlen’s Strate­gic Con­sult­ing Ser­vices group at 847−412−4965.

About the Author

Evan McKerns
Manager, Strategic Consulting Services. Evan McKerns is the Manager of Strategic Consulting Services at Donlen Corporation. In this role he is responsible for oversight and management of Strategic Consulting Services, which provides in-depth operational, financial and environmental analysis for strategic accounts. Mr. McKerns also leads the SCS team in monitoring process implementation, and collaborates with clients to identify, monitor, and manage emerging trends working to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and enable the development, implementation and management of new corporate policies. Mr. McKerns has been at Donlen for more than four years, with direct responsibility for the development and implementation of several large-scale initiatives, including Donlen's Quarterly Fleet Optimization Scorecard process, and Donlen Corporation's environmental tools: Carbon Calculator (VOM) and Carbon Conversion, and the www.coolfleets.com partnership with Sierra Club's Cool Cities program. Mr. McKerns attended Lehigh University, graduating in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and studied Environmental History in the University of Texas at Austin's PhD program in American History.

Posted In: Blog Post

Leave a comment

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.