By getting employees to drive smarter — by eliminating jackrabbit starts and minimizing idling — companies of all sizes are cutting fuel costs and saving money.

It doesn’t matter whether companies are interested in protecting the planet or the corporate wallet, they end up doing both when their drivers learn how to drive economically. They usually cut fuel costs by 4%, according to Jason Mathers, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Green Driver project manager. Emission reductions can be as high as 14%.

The savings are obvious. What managers may not recognize, Mathers told the Chicago Sun-Times, is that for every gallon of fuel not used, a company avoids creating 19.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

EDF has expanded its Green Driver program to target company fleet operations. The program is geared for both executives that get vehicles as company perks and workers driving various delivery vehicles.

The city of Chicago, with more than 10,000 city vehicles, cut fuel costs by $1.2 million a year by adopting an anti-idling campaign. It also installed devices on some city vehicles that shut off the engine when it idles more than three minutes. Building product manufacturer The Johns Manville company has enrolled 200 of its drivers in the EDF driving course.

EDF’s green driving program recommends that companies:

1. measure vehicle emissions and set reduction goals
2. improve vehicle selection process (for example offer hybrids instead of SUVs to company execs)
3. improve vehicle use
4. purchase carbon offsets, and
5. report on your progress.

The EDF Green Driver Web site also includes a calculator that lets you estimate fuel and carbon dioxide reductions. EDF also offers a fuel-smart driving handbook for free online.

Even those who don’t want to be part of the green revolution can pocket fuel savings. The secret? Retraining employees how to properly drive company vehicles.

By getting employees to drive smarter — by eliminating jackrabbit starts and minimizing idling — companies of all sizes are cutting fuel costs and saving money.

It doesn’t matter whether companies are interested in protecting the planet or the corporate wallet, they end up doing both when their drivers learn how to drive economically. They usually cut fuel costs by 4%, according to Jason Mathers, the Environmental Defense Fund’s Green Driver project manager. Emission reductions can be as high as 14%.

The savings are obvious. What managers may not recognize, Mathers told the Chicago Sun-Times, is that for every gallon of fuel not used, a company avoids creating 19.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

EDF has expanded its Green Driver program to target company fleet operations. The program is geared for both executives that get vehicles as company perks and workers driving various delivery vehicles.

The city of Chicago, with more than 10,000 city vehicles, cut fuel costs by $1.2 million a year by adopting an anti-idling campaign. It also installed devices on some city vehicles that shut off the engine when it idles more than three minutes. Building product manufacturer The Johns Manville company has enrolled 200 of its drivers in the EDF driving course.

EDF’s green driving program recommends that companies:

1. measure vehicle emissions and set reduction goals
2. improve vehicle selection process (for example offer hybrids instead of SUVs to company execs)
3. improve vehicle use
4. purchase carbon offsets, and
5. report on your progress.

The EDF Green Driver Web site also includes a calculator that lets you estimate fuel and carbon dioxide reductions. EDF also offers a fuel-smart driving handbook for free online.

And, the really good news is that there are still plenty of ideas for you to capitalize on.

That is the lesson from 26 MBA students after they spent the summer with 26 Fortune 500 companies as part of the Climate Corps project sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Students from top-ranking business schools each identified energy saving projects that saved money, cut energy use and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In each case, students came up with the green ideas that:

• saved the participating companies $54 million over the life of the projects initiated
• cut 160 million kilowatt hours of energy use a year — enough to power 14,000 homes, and
• avoided creating 100,000 metric tons of GHG emissions each year — the equivalent of taking 12,000 SUVs off the road.

The encouraging part of these savings is that the Climate Corps students proved that there are plenty of no-cost and low-cost, money-saving projects that companies can adopt right away by upgrading lighting, computer equipment and heating and cooling systems. Energy-saving projects included:

• taking advantage of rebates companies are overlooking. That’s how Climate Corps fellow Neelam Bhatia found a $50,000 rebate for cooling equipment purchased by Advanced Micro Devices.
• cutting IT’s energy usage by adopting virtualization and other energy cutting measures. That’s how Mark Braby found $3.4 million in savings for Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems.
• increasing the temperature in data centers. Sara Shapiral proved to Cisco that easing off just a bit on the air conditioning can safely save $1.8 million.
• combining operation centers. David Fox saved North Carolina Central University $74,000 a year by proving it was cheaper to house students in one or two buildings during the summer rather than let them stay spread out in all the dorms, and
• retrofitting lighting systems. Ryan Whisnant developed a plan that cut SunGard’s energy bill by 25% with a mix of lighting and HVAC upgrades.

This was the second year of the Climate Corps project. EDF reports that 97% of the projects identified by students in 2008 have been completed or are still in operation.

What’s it say when students can find millions of dollars in energy efficiency savings during internship programs? Can you say “low hanging fruit?”

And, the really good news is that there are still plenty of ideas for you to capitalize on.

That is the lesson from 26 MBA students after they spent the summer with 26 Fortune 500 companies as part of the Climate Corps project sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

Students from top-ranking business schools each identified energy saving projects that saved money, cut energy use and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In each case, students came up with the green ideas that:

• saved the participating companies $54 million over the life of the projects initiated
• cut 160 million kilowatt hours of energy use a year — enough to power 14,000 homes, and
• avoided creating 100,000 metric tons of GHG emissions each year — the equivalent of taking 12,000 SUVs off the road.

The encouraging part of these savings is that the Climate Corps students proved that there are plenty of no-cost and low-cost, money-saving projects that companies can adopt right away by upgrading lighting, computer equipment and heating and cooling systems. Energy-saving projects included:

• taking advantage of rebates companies are overlooking. That’s how Climate Corps fellow Neelam Bhatia found a $50,000 rebate for cooling equipment purchased by Advanced Micro Devices.
• cutting IT’s energy usage by adopting virtualization and other energy cutting measures. That’s how Mark Braby found $3.4 million in savings for Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems.
• increasing the temperature in data centers. Sara Shapiral proved to Cisco that easing off just a bit on the air conditioning can safely save $1.8 million.
• combining operation centers. David Fox saved North Carolina Central University $74,000 a year by proving it was cheaper to house students in one or two buildings during the summer rather than let them stay spread out in all the dorms, and
• retrofitting lighting systems. Ryan Whisnant developed a plan that cut SunGard’s energy bill by 25% with a mix of lighting and HVAC upgrades.

This was the second year of the Climate Corps project. EDF reports that 97% of the projects identified by students in 2008 have been completed or are still in operation.

Such a relationship now threatens to tarnish Verizon’s green image because it has joined ranks with coal companies that like to chop off the tops of mountains.

But why? To get rid of those damn piles of coal and dirt and trees? Are they making it tough for Verizon’s ad man to get an answer to his “Can you hear me now?” question down the hollows?

That’s the way the Natural Resources Defense Council and the online news service, The Huffington Post, are reacting to Verizon’s decision to sell its wireless services at this weekend’s “Friends of America” rally. The rally at a strip mine in Logan, WV, is for those who support mountaintop removal as a mining technique and who oppose taking action on global warming.

Oh, and Verizon’s now a union-busting company because the key sponsor of the rally is Massey Energy, which is leading the push to remove mountain tops at its strip mines and is known for being anti-union. The NRDC blog post is here. The Huffington blog post is here.

Some environmental groups, like NRDC and the Center for Biological Diversity, are even calling for a boycott of Verizon for its participating in the Labor Day weekend event. The Center’s call for a boycott is here.

Verizon’s crime: Pitching a sales tent at the event to sell phones and wireless services.

The boycott brouhaha has other environmental groups scratching their heads because Verizon has been on the green bandwagon for several years. Verizon has tallied up a number of green points by investing solar panels and fuel cells. It also requires its suppliers to adopt energy-efficiency programs. Verizon’s green programs are detailed here.

The wireless company has even received an award — this year — from the Environmental Defense Fund for cutting its energy demand and thereby cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Verizon did it by installing software that automatically puts computers to sleep when they’re not in use. This not only helps save the planet, but also saves Verizon $7 million a year.

Verizon also uses “thin client” computers that connect to off-site servers to cut down on local call center electricity bills, which cut costs by 30%. For more details, click here.