We know you’ve been waiting with bated breath, but the results are finally in. For the second time in less than 10 years, Mercedes-Benz won the award for producing the greenest car in the world. Surprised? We kinda were too.

When thinking about green cars, characteristics like (more…)

The exhaust fumes from gasoline vehicles contribute more to the production of a specific type of air pollution-secondary organic aerosols (SOA)-than those from diesel vehicles, according to a new study by scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Secondary organic aerosols, tiny “tar balls” resulting from combustion (more…)

Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl is typically made by chemically these oils with an alcohol. Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petrodiesel.

There was a recent White House announcement calling for expanded production of biofuels (36 billion gallons by 2022, to be exact).

But producing more biofuels is only part of the equation when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our reliance on petroleum carbon based fuels. Vehicles must be ready and sometimes converted to this usage.

Enterprise Holdings just announced that it will convert its entire fleet of Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental airport shuttle buses to biodiesel by spring of this year. That’s more than 600 buses throughout more than 50 North American markets.

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Sustainability advocates long ago adopted the mantra “buy local” to limit the carbon footprint of the goods purchased. Distributed energy that’s closer to the end user through smaller solar and wind power, is having an impact on the energy sector. The next industry to become more geography-centric in purchasing will be transportation.

The automotive and petroleum industries in the United States are also relatively centralized as well. While the largest companies have U.S. central offices, the supply strings are often pulled from far away places. But as electric vehicles and biofuels ramp up, their influence with local consumers and partners will become more significant.

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