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.
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