BLOOMINGTON, IL – State Farm Insurance Co. is focused on being “more green.” And though it didn’t intend to brag, the Bloomington-based insurance company has attracted national attention for its fleet of thousands of eco-friendly vehicles, according to www.pantagraph.com. Automotive Fleet magazine recognized State Farm for having the fourth-largest non-governmental alternative-fuel commercial fleet in the United States last year. State Farm ranked 18th out of 100 groups in America that have invested in fleet vehicles to help reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution.

State Farm has 4,003 flex-fuel, 143 hybrid-electric, and two biodiesel vehicles either in service or already ordered nationwide. Of those, 95 flex-fuel, 14 hybrid-electric, and one of the biodiesel vehicles are in Bloomington.

The alternative-fuel fleet’s total represents about 29 percent of the company’s 14,300 vehicles. The numbers already have escalated since Automotive Fleet surveyed State Farm when the company had 3,166 eco-friendly cars. Eventually, 60 percent of the company’s new vehicles will be flex-fuel, hybrid-electric, or four-cylinders.

Because of the company’s alternative-fuel vehicles, the switch from six cylinders to four cylinders, and reducing the number of cars in some locations, State Farm used 87,000 fewer gallons of gasoline in 2006 than 2005. That use also equates to the elimination of 287 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2006.