On the morning of August 20 at Burke Lakefront airport, fleet managers from across the city turned out to witness the Cleveland launch of the Ohio Green Fleets Program.  This program is a creation of Clean Fuels Ohio with local support from NOACA and EarthDay Coalition's Clean Transportation Program.  The debut featured a wide variety of 'green' vehicles, including a hybrid-electric dump truck, several heavy duty vehicles & school busses with various retrofit technologies, and a propane powered van among several other emerging technologies.

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The Ohio Green Fleets Program has three core components:

1. PARTNERSHIPS with fleet managers to develop a Green Fleet policy
tailored to their specific needs
2. HANDS-ON SUPPORT and assistance in implementing the policy
3. STATEWIDE RATING SYSTEM to recognize those fleets that have made
progress toward their environmental goals

Ohio Green Fleets is a collaboration of the Ohio Energy Office, Earth Day Coalition and several local and regional organizations    

Its uniform statewide recognition system will make it easy to determine who has become a leader in green technology use for transportation energy. This public recognition system can be a badge of pride for organizations and businesses.

Ohio Green Fleets’ success will improve the quality of life for all Ohioans as they work for cleaner air, better health, and a strong economy free from dependence on imported petroleum.
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This program is of special importance to Northeast Ohio due to the economic and health challenges we face due to our Federal non-attainment status for both fine particle pollution and ground level ozone.  Since both on-road and off-road vehicles are significant contributors to this problem, the Ohio Green Fleets program can do much to facilitate change the way in which local fleets are managed.