Verizon Contracts Steelweld to Convert 300 Vans to CNG, Adding 260 Hybrids

8 October 2010

Verizon has contracted with Steelweld Equipment Co. to convert 300 gasoline-powered Ford E-250 cargo vans to CNG, a move that will reduce vehicle carbon emissions by 480 tons per year. On average, CNG engines emit 23% less carbon dioxide than comparable gasoline-powered vans.

The 300 new vans being retrofitted by Steelweld will be used in Southern California by Verizon technicians who install and repair broadband, TV and voice communications services for the company’s residential and small-business customers.

In 2008, Verizon was the first service provider in the US to establish its own energy-consumption standards for new telecommunications network equipment to reduce its energy consumption and help shrink the company’s carbon footprint.

Since then, we’ve taken more steps to work with network equipment manufacturers to increase the energy efficiency of our operations, like reducing the heat output of chipsets and circuit boards to curb the need for air conditioning in our switching facilities. These new CNG vans aren’t the first alternative fuel vehicles we’ve deployed in California, but they constitute one of our largest introductions to date.

—Margaret Serjak, Verizon’s operations president in California

The 300 vans are among the more than 1,600 alternative energy vehicles that Verizon plans to add to its nationwide fleet this year.

Verizon will add more than 260 hybrid vehicles to its New Jersey fleet this year. The new vehicles will include Toyota hybrid sedans, Chevrolet hybrid pickup trucks and new mild hybrid aerial fiber splicing trucks.

The Chevrolet hybrid pickups will be used by FiOS and traditional telephone customer-service technicians and are expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by 43% over the vans they will replace.