The ninth annual Green Fleet Conference & Expo (GFC) announced its schedule for the annual event Oct. 29-30 in Schaumburg, Ill. The 2014 keynote speakers are Mark Smith from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities and John Viera from Ford Motor Co.

Smith kicks off with the opening keynote address, sponsored by GM Fleet & Commercial, discussing the challenges, success and opportunities with alternative fuels. Smith is the vehicle technologies deployment manager for the DOE national Clean Cities’ program. He focuses his time toward developing strategies for implementing new national partnerships between industry and the Clean Cities program to deploy new vehicle managers.

GFC provides nine hours of workshops and breakout sessions on managing and lowering fuel consumption. The conference content and expo covers all vehicles from sedans and SUVs to light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks.

This year’s GFC also gives attendees the chance to test out some of the latest alt-fuel vehicles during the Ride and Drive Event.

In addition to more educational sessions, the final day will be spent honoring fleets, fleet managers, and automotive vendors during the Green Fleet Awards Ceremony. Green Fleet magazine will hand fleet professionals who have gone above and beyond to make their operations and the world ‘greener’ in its coveted Fleet Sustainability All-Star Awards. The deadline to submit is August 18. You can make nominations here.   

Viera will wrap up the conference with his closing address, sponsored by LeasePlan, on ‘Rethinking Green From Philanthropic to Sustainable Business Strategies.’ Viera is the global director of sustainability for Ford. Viera spends his time translating environmental and social sustainability practices into a business plan for Ford.

Click here to see the full 2014 schedule.

Fleet and supplier attendees can also take advantage of the early bird discount if you register before Sept. 29.