We have been having a lot of discussions at Green Collar recently with companies involved in helping Vehicle Fleets become more efficient.  The great thing about this area of the Green Collar Economy is that it is an easy area to get a great business ROI (which CFO’s love) and a area where a huge amount of carbon emissions can be eliminated (which is good for all of us).  This short video highlights how quickly both of these benefits come to fruition when dealing with fleet vehicles.

If you haven’t yet, you should check out the White Papers and Case Studies on GreenCollarEconomy.com reviewing the different approaches and benefits to improving fleet efficiency, saving money and lowering carbon emissions in companies operating fleet vehicles (I’m looking at you municipalities, delivery companies, repair companies, etc.). Also, check out the huge directory of green fleet solutions.

Building efficiency may be the most visible low-hanging fruit in the race to become more sustainable as a nation and a planet, but with the ROI available to fleet managers going green, this area is going to get hot and get hot fast.

Following up on my post (rant) from a few weeks ago about the brilliant American auto industry and the troubles they are having - surprise, surprise - moving all of their behemoth SUV’s, there are some truly disturbing July numbers out.  GM lost $15.5 Billion in a quarter, Ford over $8 Billion, sales of SUV’s down over 40% from a year earlier.  Yikes.  Even though I’ve felt like the Big 3 had it coming, I do want the US auto industry to survive and reclaim its leadership position in innovation and design.

The front page article from the New York Times today outlines the sprint the Big 3 are in to see if they can completely revamp their offerings and business structure prior to running out of cash.  I hope they make it.

This is not really why I’m posting today, however.  There is another article I noticed while sitting on my front porch, reading the Times on my laptop, called Ditch the Gas Guzzler?  Well, Maybe Not Yet. that outlines the  financial reasons why, if you are an SUV or a truck owner, you may want to consider holding onto your big vehicle or even getting a new one (wow, can you get a deal now!).  It cites a number of factor to take into consideration, including trade in value, practicality of a small car for your needs, how much gas you would actually save compared to cost of trading in your vehicle for a rock bottom price, etc..

The genesis of the article is described like this:

Philip Reed, senior consumer advice editor at Edmunds.com, was on the tennis court a month ago when a friend asked him what he ought to do about his Ford Escape S.U.V. “I said, ‘You probably don’t want to hear this, but your best thing is to keep driving it,’ ” he said.

Mr. Reed and his colleagues huddled to come up with a way to help consumers do the math, and the result is the new “Gas Guzzler for Gas Sipper” trade-in calculator at edmunds.com/calculators/gas-guzzler.html.

Nowhere in the article does it encourage people to take carbon, or environmental impact, into consideration.  The calculator does not take this into consideration either.  I understand that it is the “Money” section of the paper, but it is nearly malfeasance in these times to not even mention this.  With all of the data they are gathering in this calculator, it would be an easy update to also allow people to get an idea of how they would be impacting their carbon footprint by trading in.

By the way, I am also not saying that trading down would make a positive carbon impact - or at least not for a long time.  There was a great article in Wired a few months ago that detailed the carbon ramifications of trading in your big car for a Prius.  Thier analysis?  Between building a new car, crushing and getting rid of the old one, combined with the actual carbon savings based  on how much you drive, you would not break even until you had put over 100,000 miles on the Prius.  Their suggestion is to buy a used car that gets decent mileage - it creates a much lower carbon footprint. 

What I am saying is that we need to have this kind of information at our fingertips whenever we make large decisions.  If we are going to ask our corporations to consistently make decisions with the triple-bottom-line in mind, then we - as consumers - need to do the same thing.

Hey Edmunds, update your calculator…we need all the information we can get.