Alternative Fuels Vehicles 2007 Industry Awards
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Anaheim, Ca-The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute (AFVi) recognized outstanding leadership in the alternative fuels and vehicles industry at the 13th Alternative Fuels & Vehicles National Conference & Expo 2007. The leadership awards are given annually to honor the achievements of people and/or companies in advancing the use of alternative fuels, vehicles and advanced transportation technologies. The AFVi 2007 awards and their recipients are as follows:
Green Award 2007
General Motors was honored for their marketing and advertising campaign
“Live Green Go Yellow.” The award was presented by AFVi
Executive Director Annalloyd Thomason (photo left) and accepted by John
Gaydash (photo right),
Director of Marketing for Fleet and Commercial Operations. The award showcases commitment to a
product in a creative way, across different media platforms and marketing
disciplines. General Motors is a leader in the production and sales of flex
fuel vehicles (FFVs), with over 2
million E85 flex fuel vehicles on the road in all 50 states. For the 2007
model year, GM is offering 16 E85 vehicle models, with an annual production
of more than 400,000 vehicles. This is more than any other manufacturer.
FFVs can run on
gasoline, ethanol or a mixture of the two. E85 is 85% ethanol and 15%
unleaded gasoline. Recognizing that many consumers don’t know they
own E85 compatible vehicles, GM launched their national campaign to raise
consumer awareness.
Promoting the use of E85 ethanol is just one part of GM’s overall
goals of creating greater diversity in technologies and energy sources, and
emission reductions.
Green Fleet Award 2007
Dan Bonawitz (photo center), Vice President of Corporate Planning and
Logistics for American Honda, accepted this award from actor Larry Hagman
(photo left) and Annalloyd Thomason. The award was given to honor the
company for their
leadership and consistency in manufacturing vehicles that provide fleets
and customers with the greenest choices around. AFVi joins a long list of those
honoring the automaker for its green vehicles ranging from ACEEE naming the
Civic GX
“America’s Greenest Car,” to a jury of 46 international
automotive journalists giving the Civic Hybrid the “2006 World Car of
the Year” award. Honda is commended for the long-term commitment to
the natural gas
fueled Civic GX; the fuel-efficient performance of the Civic Hybrid; having
the highest corporate average fuel economy of any major OEM, and their
pioneering work in introducing their FCX fuel cell Sedan in fleet and
highway
demonstrations.
Industry Innovation Award 2007
James Harger, Clean Energy Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales,
was joined by Westport Innovations CEO Mike Gallagher, Inland Kenworth
General Manager, Mark Zucker, and Kenworth’s Andy Douglas to receive
the award. The
Industry Innovation Award is given to companies that collaboratively
identify solutions to clean transportation obstacles. The ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach in California have all developed clean air action
plans to combat public
health risks from toxic air contaminants. Trucks are one of the biggest
transportation polluters and consume over half of the oil used for road
transport. The solution A fuel provider with a finance
program; an engine manufacturer with more than 15,000 engines globally; a
leading manufacturer of heavy-and medium-duty trucks; and a dealer to sell
the product. Together, they are making affordable natural gas trucks
available to fleets and independent owner-operators now driving older,
heavily polluting diesel
vehicles. This business model is being rewarded as one that is replicable
by others beyond the collaborators winning the award. (Photo from left to
right: Annalloyd Thomason, James Harger, Mike Gallagher, Andy Douglas,
Graham Noyes,
Mark Zucker and Larry Hagman.)
Industry Pioneer Award 2007
The Industry Pioneer Award 2007 was presented to Anne Smith (photo right),
Sr. Vice President of Customer Services for the Southern California Gas
Company (The Gas Company) by Santa Ana, California Mayor Miguel Pulido
(photo left). An
“Industry Pioneer” is an early adopter of a fuel or technology
that over time advances their vision through successful public/private
partnerships The Gas Company had the foresight in
the early 1970s to embrace natural gas as a transportation fuel. Even then,
the clean,
affordable fuel was accepted as a tool to combat the inevitable
environmental challenges resulting from the population growth that southern
California was facing. In spite of waning interest in natural gas as a
transportation fuel over the
decades, the Gas Company continued its strong program. As a result, the
greater Los Angeles Area has benefited from the prescience of a key
corporate ally that understood the threats that climate change and oil
dependence would pose.
Southern California Gas Company is commended for making business decisions
for the common good.
Industry Visionary Award 2007
The award was presented to T. Boone Pickens for his vision and
entrepreneurship in the areas of oil and gas, the environment and
entrepreneurship. He is rapidly gaining distinction as one of
America’s most generous philanthropists,
ranking in the top 10 of U.S. givers for his 2005 and 2006 philanthropy,
which approached $400 million Recipients of his philanthropy have
been far-reaching, from the American Red Cross to his alma mater, Oklahoma
State University, and from the Reagan Presidential Library Foundation to
the Wilmer Eye Institute. His forecasts of U.S. Energy issues have proven
uncannily accurate, and he is a frequent guest on some of nation’s
most respected news programs. Mr. Pickens is not shy in proposing solutions
to
America’s increasing dependence on foreign oil, with a current focus
on the need to expand the use of nuclear energy and clean coal for power
generation, with coal replacing what he believes is a cleaner, abundant
domestic
alternative — natural gas — in the transportation arena. (Photo
from left to right: Larry Hagman, T. Boone Pickens, Annalloyd
Thomason)
Oxygen Award 2007
The City of Kansas City, Missouri, received this award for the role they
have played in using alternative fuels. Sam Swearngin, Fleet Superintendent
for the city, received the award for taking concrete steps to improve the
city’s air
quality through the use of alternative transportation fuels. The city was recently ranked by
SustainLane as the number three city in the country for the use of
alternative fuels, which they’ve done since 1996. They currently have
218 compressed natural gas (CNG)
vehicles in various departments, including Kansas City International
Airport's 35 buses. In 2002 the water department began using biodiesel in
their more than 900 diesel-powered vehicles. The city is involved in a
number of collaborations
ranging from alternative fuel research and development with the University
of Missouri-Columbia and the Midwest Research Institute to supporting the
work of the Kansas City Clean Cities coalition.
About AFVi
The Alternative Fuel Vehicle Institute (AFVi) is an entrepreneurial
organization that works through industry to bring people in need of proven
transportation technologies together with those who can meet their needs.
AFVi is the education
provider and information link between the alternative fuels and vehicles
industry and public/private fleets. AFVi is fuel and technology neutral.