A message from
Beth Kinerk, Senior Vice President, Sales, Avis Budget Group
Beth Kinerk, Senior Vice President, Sales, Avis Budget Group
At Avis Budget Group, we know the value of being smart. We are smart about how we use natural resources and we are smart about our vehicles because we know that “smart” vehicles equal a smart infrastructure.
To minimize our water footprint, for example, we are targeting the consumption and wastewater associated with cleaning and maintaining our vehicles. Across our major facilities, we continued to maintain and install new car wash systems, which recycle and reuse up to 80 percent of their wastewater.
We also strive to reduce waste to landfill from our own operations, working hard to generate less waste, repair and reuse whenever possible. We also engage with our vendors to recycle materials across each of our waste streams, which mainly includes paper, vehicle tires, windshields, vehicle parts and used motor oil.
As well, to help our customers and partners manage their carbon footprint, we offer an Environmental Sustainability Summary through our Business Intelligence reporting tool. Th e report offers detail rental data on CO2, N2O, and NH4 emissions, giving clear understanding of rental behavior and helping manage sustainability goals.
The real-time data collected from our thousands of vehicles and millions of trips can help urban developers plan smarter cities.
and safer infrastructure. For instance, incorporating aggregated data from connected vehicles into smart city solutions can provide deeper insight for congestion management, traffic flow optimization and route optimization, transportation system planning, emissions management, parking management, and more.
We are doing our part to help make cities smarter, roads safer, traffic flow more efficient, driving more enjoyable and mobility more sustainable.
Vehicles today are believed to account for at least 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and are the greatest source of air pollution in large cities. Avis Budget Group is committed to monitoring, measuring and managing our environmental impact, and working to reduce it. We are planning ahead for a future of mobility that is cleaner, safer, climate restorative and inclusive for all.
The industry’s ‘greenest, smartest, safest fleet’
We aim to lead the way in sustainable mobility and join global efforts to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from transport. We are committed to offering the greenest, smartest and safest fleet in our industry. We are delivering on this promise in three fronts: fleet optimization, which includes leveraging connected vehicle technology; introducing more fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles; and making sustainable mobility central to our company by expanding car-sharing solutions (through our Zipcar brand) and initiatives such as our partnership with Via.
In 2020, we took a big step forward in launching our first—and an industry first: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction target of 30 percent that primarily addresses our vehicle fleet because consumer use of our vehicles currently comprises 99 percent of our combined emissions.
The fully connected vehicles in our fleet support our ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a steadfast focus on fleet maintenance and optimization. We also have one of the largest low-emission fleets in our industry. Thirty percent of our U.S. fleet received U.S. EPA Smart Way Certification, and our more than 1 million Zipcar members globally reduce their CO2 footprint by up to 1,600 pounds per year.
New technology and reporting drive efficiencies
Most vehicles in our fleet are less than 18 months old and have much newer technology than the average car. The digitalization of our fleet is also driving efficiencies in our preventive maintenance operations. Our new time-saving digital dashboard reports critical data in real-time to our fleet managers, such as tire pressure, engine oil life, vehicle condition and other measures that help ensure our fleet is running at maximum fuel efficiency.
Zipcar is our leading car-sharing brand
Today, Avis Budget Group now operates the world’s leading car-sharing network through our Zipcar brand, which provides urban consumers a sustainable and equitable mobility solution across nearly 500 cities and towns and nearly 500 college and university campuses. In addition to taking thousands of cars off the road and reducing congestion, car-sharing consumers report an average reduction of vehicle miles traveled of 40 percent.
Driving the change in mobility
At Avis Budget Group, we have been actively anticipating and driving the change in mobility. Connected and autonomous vehicles are likely to become a common feature worldwide, along with an increased use of electric and shared vehicles. That’s why we’re building on our core experience, data intelligence and technology to develop entirely new lines of business and extend our offering and capabilities for our customers, businesses and cities.
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