Green Coach Certification Program

As I have noted in many previous blogs, ecoShuttle is tirelessly dedicated to being the greenest transportation company on the block, no make that city.  No, make that country, baby!  Now we have a rating system to back up our green bona fides.

Mass transit is of course greener than everyone driving around alone in their cars; however, mass transit is still a big source of pollution.  This has led the United Motorcoach Association to team up with the University of Vermont, one of the nation’s leading colleges in sustainability, to create the Green Coach Certification Program.  The aim of this program is to not only determine which coach companies are “green”, but to determine the extent to which a company is sustainable on graduated levels.  According to University of Vermont professor, Dave Kestenbaum, the program is set to be a continuous, permanent certification program based on a set of criteria including:  Meeting or surpassing the transportation industry average of 148 passenger miles per gallon, running EPA 2007 compliant engines, running EPA 2010 compliant engines, offsetting carbon emissions by 80% through carbon trading, utilization of alternative fuels, maintaining a verifiable energy conservation and recycling program, as well as incorporating emerging environmental technologies as prescribed by the Green Coach Certification Program. 

OK, so not to toot our own horn but we ended up hitting four of the seven criteria.  This sets us at 4 leaves.  As such, we are currently the only company running on 100% Biodiesel to hit the four leaf mark.  That’s not bad, it’s actually pretty fantastic, but rest assured, we have no plans to stop innovating and looking for new ways to neutralize our carbon foot print and lead this industry responsibly into a greener future.

 

Sunny skies (where you at?!),

Mark