It should come as no surprise that the collective effort of large corporations to "go green" can have more of an impact on our environment than any one individual's sole effort. In recent years, auto makers have stepped up their game in terms of reducing their carbon footprints. While auto makers are pushing to produce alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles, the companies that use these vehicles are pushing to invest in "green" transportation for their fleets. And AT&T is no different.

In a recent move to reduce their impact on the environment, they've announced a $565 million investment - part of which includes 1,200 compressed natural gas (CNG) cargo vans from Chevrolet. This brings the number of alternative-fuel vehicles in their fleet to more than 5,000. AT&T VP of Fleet Operations, Jerome Webber, explains the investment, saying "CNG technology is important to AT&T because it helps us reduce our fleet-based carbon emissions, ...It is also cost-effective and readily available in our country right now."¹

Making CNG technology more widely available is as important to Chevy as it is to companies like AT&T. "There are millions of fleet vehicles on the road today and we want to be a critical part of this sustainable revolution, helping make these conversions as easy as possible,"² says Brian Small, General Manager, GM Fleet and Commercial Operations.

Why CNG? Well, according to the EPA, CNG-powered vehicles produce approximately 25 percent less carbon emissions than similar gasoline and diesel-powered vans. As part of their partnership with the Department of Energy's Clean Cities National Clean Fleets, AT&T has already avoided purchasing over one million gallons of petroleum, in 2010 alone. When the company is done deploying all of their alternative-fuel vehicles in 2018, they will have saved 49 million gallons of gasoline and will have cut their carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, that's the equivalent of removing 36,000 passenger vehicles from the road for one year!

Each Chevrolet Express CNG van ordered by AT&T is powered by a Vortec 6.0L V8 engine. The trucks, available through Chevy factories, are based on Chevrolet Express 2500 and 3500 cargo vans. Features of each van include:

• The protection of GM's 3-year, 36,000-mile warranty
• Five-year, 100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty
• Meets EPA and California Air Resources Board emission certification requirements

It's obvious that CNG-powered vehicles are set to make a huge difference in carbon emissions, and Courtesy Chevrolet is proud to see Chevrolet joining the effort for a greener world. Be sure to stay tuned with us for more news from Chevrolet, including information about all of the latest fuel-sipping 2012 Chevy models. Or stop by during our regular business hours and chat with a member of our team, you'll find us at 3640 Stevens Creek Blvd in San Jose, CA 95117.

Source:^1,2http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/chevrolet/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2012/Jan/0130_cng