Southern California Gas Co. took home the "Leading Private Fleet Award" at the 2022 Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo. This year, there were more than 250 nominees across all award categories.

Finalists in the Leading Private Fleet category included Genentech, Iron Mountain, McAbee Trucking Incorporated, Sysco, and United Natural Foods Incorporated. The award recognizes leadership that goes above and beyond what is required to achieve sustainability in a company's fleet operations.

The award specifically acknowledges SoCalGas' critical investments towards its ASPIRE 2045 sustainability goals which includes working to replace 50% of its over-the-road fleet with clean fuel vehicles by 2025 and operate a zero-emission fleet by 2035. Currently, a third of SoCalGas' fleet already operates on clean fuels.

"This is exciting news for SoCalGas as we continue to make strides to decarbonize one of the hardest to abate sectors of the economy," said Jawaad Malik vice president of strategy and sustainability, and chief environmental officer. "We continue to invest in a diverse set of innovative and advanced fleet technology such as hydrogen fuel cell, electric, and renewable natural gas-powered vehicles. Adopting new, cleaner technologies and leading the fleet industry with our closed-loop recycling program will help SoCalGas and California reach our shared climate and air quality goals."

The company's efforts to replace 50% of its over-the-road fleet with clean fuel vehicles by 2025, includes an announcement back in March that SoCalGas plans to install 1,500 electric vehicle chargers at 67 company facilities by the end of 2024. This year, the company plans to purchase Ford F-150 Lightning electric trucks and E-Transit electric vans to be serviced by the new chargers.

Also this year, SoCalGas purchased 50 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCEV), making SoCalGas among the first utilities in the nation to start transitioning to hydrogen-powered vehicles. And last year, SoCalGas converted 200 new Ford F-250 service pickup trucks to run on renewable natural gas (RNG). The service trucks are outfitted with the newest Landi Renzo Eco Ready™ equipment, a California Air Resource Board certified ultra-low emissions vehicles system.

The SoCalGas fleet also participates in a closed-loop automotive oil and antifreeze recycling program, which prevents the incineration of the waste and helps reduce air pollution. Last year, SoCalGas recycled more than 15,000 gallons of oil and antifreeze as a result.

SoCalGas manages a fleet of more than 5,000, which includes, light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles as well as trailers and equipment. The utility has been at the forefront of fleet sustainability with early implementation of natural gas as a vehicle fuel more than 40 years ago. And for over 30 years, SoCalGas has supported the alternative fuel transportation industry by offering public compressed natural gas refueling stations at its operating bases. Since September 2020, SoCalGas refueling stations have been supplied with carbon negative RNG.

"We had a record-breaking number of submissions this year and it was difficult to choose just one winner per category given the impressive initiatives we saw from each nominee," said Erik Neandross, CEO at Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), a clean transportation firm and energy consulting firm and the host of ACT Expo.