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Business & Tech

Keeping the Air in Laguna Niguel Clean

AT&T deploys its 5,000th green vehicle in the U.S. and has 60 trucks in our city.

There are 60 AT&T trucks doing their part to help keep the air in Laguna Niguel clean.

In fact, California is home to the majority of AT&T’s clean fuel fleet with 2,476 of the 5,000 vehicles located in the state. These are electric, hybrid or compressed natural gas vehicles that reduce greenhouse gasses, provide cleaner air and use less fuel.   

The company embarked on a 10- year commitment of up to $565 million to deploy approximately 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles through 2018, including one of the largest U.S. corporate commitments to compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles to date.

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"Given the amount of time I'm out on the road serving our customers and the distances we drive in Southern California, I feel better driving an alternative-fuel vehicle - confident we are doing our part to support cleaner air," said Todd Merriss, a Laguna Niguel-based AT&T U-verse technician.

In a short period of time, with the support of community leaders all over the country, we’ve invested in the deployment of thousands of advanced technology vehicles that promote cleaner air, use less fuel and help AT&T lower its operating costs, said Jerome Webber, vice president, AT&T Global Fleet Operations.

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“While some may see just another car or truck on the road, we think these vehicles represent the shared values of the communities where we live, work and play.”

In 2010, AT&T and other large U.S. fleet operators joined in the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities’ National Clean Fleets Partnership as part of a national challenge launched by President Obama to cut America’s petroleum imports by one-third by 2025.

Through 2013, AT&T anticipates it will have purchased up to 8,000 CNG vehicles at an estimated cost of $350 million. Additionally, over the life of the commitment, AT&T expects to invest $215 million to replace approximately 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative-fuel models.

According to a 2009 Center for Automotive Research report, AT&T’s planned alternative-fuel vehicle initiative would:

  • Save 49 million gallons of gasoline over the 10-year deployment period.
  • Reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons – the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 38,600 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.

Beyond the AFV deployments, AT&T is turning to its service garages to help minimize its environmental footprint and cut operating costs within its overall fleet. These programs include:

  • Redirecting an estimated 60,000 old tires annually through a new recycling program that turns old rubber into fuel and consumer products.
  • Recycling all primary garage products, including 180,000 pounds of oil filters; 200,000 gallons of oil; and 23,000 gallons of antifreeze annually.
  • Eliminating the purchase of 9,000 pounds of lead annually that were being used to balance new fleet vehicle tires at high speeds.

For more information about AT&T’s sustainability efforts and to view a copy of AT&T’s 2010 Sustainability Report, please visit www.att.com/csr.  

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