Six fleet managers took home awards and top honors for the efficiency and sustainability categories during the Fleet Technology Expo’s Light & Medium Duty Fleet awards on Aug. 26.

The top winners of the sustainability category included Alameda County, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and the Eugene (Ore.) Water and Electric Board. DISH, NPL Construction, and Osram Sylvania took home top honors in the efficiency category.

Alameda County Transportation Services has been implementing fleet greening initiatives since it purchased its first battery-electric hybrid in 2001. The county now maintains a fleet of 252 hybrids and battery-electric vehicles. Since 2001, these vehicles have saved the county $487,000 and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1,917 tons, according to the county.

The county has installed 40 dual-port charging stations for its EVs at six locations and plans to have a total of 106 EV charging stations by the end of the year, according to the county. Phil Kobernick, Sustainability Project Manager at Alameda County, accepted the award.

The UPMC has purchased 20 dedicated compressed natural gas (CNG) transit buses for its fleet and plans to purchase 21 additional dedicated CNG buses for its employee transit program with an ultimate goal of converting its entire bus fleet to CNG, according to the medical center.

The medical center's 41 CNG buses should reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 1,041 metric tons per year and cut fuel costs by more than half. Bart Wyss, Director Distribution Transportation & Logistics at UPMC, received the award.

Eugene Water and Electric Board recently designed and built an alternative fuel fueling facility that provides its fleet with biofuel blends such as B-30 biodiesel, E-15 ethanol, and E-85 ethanol. The accessibility and use of these alternative fuels has cut its fossil fuel dependency by 31.5 percent, according to the utility.

The board reduced vehicle idling by over 60 percent by installing GPS in every vehicle and has made its fleet shop 45 percent more energy efficient than state codes require by installing a LEED Gold-certified fleet shop, according to the utility. Gary Lentsch, the board's fleet manager, received the award.

DISH reduced its miles per job by 10 percent by creating more efficient routes through the use of telematics and has cut fuel usage by 7 percent through fleet-wide engine calibrations, according to the company. Abe Stephenson, the satellite broadcaster's fleet manager, received the award.

NPL Construction cut its carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 1.08 million pounds and saved $187,000 by reducing its fleet's unnecessary idle time by over 20 percent, according to the company. It did this by installing telematics on its vehicles as well as training and educating its drivers in idle-reduction procedures. Neil Holladay and Bill Ursic, the company's fleet managers, received the award.

Osram Sylvania cut its carbon-dioxide emissions by 20 percent and doubled its initial five-year goal of 10 percent while lowering its fuel spend, according to the company. It did this by reducing idle time, replacing vehicles powered by V-6 and V-8 engines with four-cylinder models, and assigning SmartWay-certified vehicles to its national sales fleet. Jeff Bechard, the fleet manager for the lighting manufacturer, received the award.

Updated on Aug. 27: Phil Kobernick was incorrectly listed as the fleet manager for Alameda County, his title has been corrected and is now listed as the county's Sustainability Project Manager.