Last week, the City of South Bend received the 2017 MACOG Green Fleet Member of the Year Award at the South Shore Clean Cities Annual Awards Luncheon in Michigan City. The award recognizes the MACOG South Shore Clean Cities Green Fleet member who has shown the greatest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and gasoline gallon equivalent reductions in its metropolitan planning organization territory. MACOG serves Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties in Indiana.
Matt Chlebowski, director of the Central Services Division, accepted the award on behalf of the City. Chlebowski highlighted the City’s successful clean fleet program, which consists of 218 hybrid, compressed natural gas or electric vehicles. The CNG program alone has replaced 175,000 gallons of fuel at a cost savings of $211,000 while reducing air pollution, including 1,600 tons of greenhouse gases.
“We’re proud to be a regional leader in green technology,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “Our Central Services Division is delivering savings to taxpayers and protecting the environment for South Bend residents and future generations.”
“To be recognized for our efforts to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions is certainly an honor. The real winners are the residents who live in a cleaner environment because of the City’s investment in alternate fuel technology,” said Chlebowski.
This is the third year in a row that the City of South Bend and the Central Services staff has received an award at this event. In 2017, Chlebowski was named “Clean Fuel Visionary of the Year” and the City was named to the Top Five Partners of the Year. In 2016, the City was named the Top Partner of the Year.
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