ASU will be honored for using electric vehicles, along with fleet managers who are using clean fuels, today at the state Capitol.
Warren Giles, who works with ASU Fleet Services, said ASU has 100 "Gem carts," which run on electricity and reduce the use of petroleum.
"We use a combination of flex-fuel vehicles and electric vehicles," he said. "Flex fuel is a blend of ethanol and gasoline."
Bill Sheaffer, coordinator for the Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition, said his group would present 32 trophies to fleets across the state. Valley Metro and the cities of Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff will also be honored.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon will be speaking at the event along with Steve Owens, director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality will also honor school districts that signed up for idle-reduction programs.
These programs encourage bus drivers to shut off engines when they arrive early, instead of sitting in the bus and letting it idle while they wait to pick up students.
About half the school districts in the state have signed on for the idle-reduction program, Sheaffer said.
Some commercial users will be recognized for their efforts, such as Sparkletts Water, which uses propane in all their vehicles, and Schwan's, which uses almost 1 million gallons of propane in Arizona, Sheaffer added. Propane is one form of alternative fuel that helps reduce pollution.
"In Maricopa County alone, those fleet managers are eliminating the use of some 20 million gallons of petroleum fuel, which is the most alternative-fuel use of any county in the nation," Sheaffer said.
The Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition's goal is to reduce air pollution and dependency on foreign oil by decreasing the use of petroleum fuel, Sheaffer said.
Valley Metro is the biggest user of liquefied natural gas in the country, while Sky Harbor International Airport is the largest user of compressed natural gas in the country, he added.
"[Arizona is] growing exponentially, and with that growth comes more vehicles and more pollution, so we have to get ahead of the curve," Sheaffer added.
Clean Cities has a new ethanol plant opening in Pinal County which has already broken ground. The coalition is also working to open up a bio-diesel plant in the Valley, which would collect used cooking oil and put it through a process to turn it into bio-diesel fuel.
There are two Clean Cities Coalitions in Arizona, the Valley of the Sun and Tucson Regional, which are charted by the U.S. Department of Energy. The group is volunteer-based and has about 150 members statewide.
Reach the reporter at laura.graham@asu.edu.
