Sustainability
The Importance of Sustainability
Mears Transportation Group understands the importance of managing and reducing our impact on the environment. We take pride in the fact that motor coaches are considered one of the greenest transportation options available. In fact, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), persons traveling on a motor coach will generate nearly 50 percent less global warming pollution than they would by driving a fuel-efficient hybrid car. Due to the number of passengers we move in our high occupancy vehicles each day, Mears is considered one of the “greenest” charter bus companies in the world as it relates to fuel consumption per passenger mile.
Our Sustainability Policy
In order to enhance our commitment to the environment, we have developed a comprehensive sustainability policy to address the immediate and long-term impact of all aspects of our business. We are implementing an ISO 14001 compliant Environmental Management System that includes strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fuel consumption, electricity use, supply purchases and waste disposal.
Specific areas include:
- Replaced more than 170 motor coaches, transit buses and trolleys with clean diesel* engines.
- Replaced entire taxi sedan fleet (more than 500 vehicles) and our Field Operations fleet with all hybrid vehicles.
- Accelerating engine and vehicle replacement with most current emission standards.
- Maximizing system-wide recycling practices, including filters, vehicle fluids such as oil and antifreeze, and tires.
- Reclaiming, processing and reusing water in vehicle wash systems.
- Educating and incentivizing “green behavior” for all employees.
- Utilizing green vendors.
- Maximizing “load” factors with chartered business.
At Mears Transportation, we continue to evaluate strategies to reduce our carbon footprint and adopt responsible sustainability practices. Our goal is to achieve GHG emissions reductions of 15% over the next 5 years and strive to achieve the emissions reduction targets expected of transportation based organizations by the U.S. EPA.
*Clean Diesel engines are the latest available technology and virtually eliminate pollution from the vehicle’s emission.