DALLAS – AT&T’s compressed natural gas vehicles helped reduce the company’s petroleum consumption by 1 million gallons in 2010. The company made this announcement on the heels of President Obama’s National Clean Fleets Partnership. This initiative, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, is designed to help large fleets across the nation reduce petroleum use by 2.5 billion gallons by 2020.

As of March 2011, AT&T stated it has deployed more than 3,500 alternative-fuel vehicles (AFVs), including more than 2,400 CNG vehicles in 543 cities in 35 states and the District of Columbia. AT&T’s total fleet numbers more than 73,500 vehicles, according to the company.

“Avoiding the purchase of one million gallons of petroleum fuel is a significant milestone for AT&T in our quest to reduce our dependence on imported of oil,” said Jerome Webber, vice president of AT&T Global Fleet Operations. “Our investment in more fuel efficient vehicles helps minimize our impact on the environment, delivers bottom line benefits to our company and helps to spur job growth in the domestic clean energy sector.” 

According to a 2009 Center for Automotive Research report, AT&T’s planned alternative fuel vehicle initiative would:

• Create or save – on average – approximately 1,000 jobs per year over the first five years of the initiative

• Save 49 million gallons of gasoline over the 10-year deployment period

• Reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons– the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 38,600 passenger vehicles from the road for one year

AT&T stated it is committed to integrating sustainable business practices across its business and was recently added to Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 12th Annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List. The company was also included in the 2010 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI) and in Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) 2010 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI).