Enterprise Rent-A-Car Designates Green Branch in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 23, 2008 - n response to customer demand for environmentally friendly vehicles, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has designated its first “Green Branch” in the state of California in Sacramento near the State Capitol. The “Green Branch” designation means rental customers will be able to choose from a fleet of cars that include hybrids as well as high-mileage, fuel-efficient cars demonstrating Enterprise’s environmental platform and the company’s ongoing commitment to supporting the use of alternative technologies and fuel-efficient vehicles.

A majority (70%) of the downtown Sacramento “Green Branch” fleet will be comprised of fuel efficient cars including hybrid gas/electric vehicles and fuel-efficient vehicles that average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg or better.

The vehicles are available to rent beginning immediately at the Enterprise Rent-A-Car branch at 500 12^th Street. (12^th and E)

“For the past 50 years, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has steadily grown its business by consistently talking and listening to its customers, said Susie Irwin, vice president and general manager for Enterprise in Sacramento. Customers of Enterprise’s downtown branches have expressed great interest in renting environmentally friendly vehicles, and we are responding by concentrating the largest number of hybrid and fuel-efficient vehicles at a specific, convenient rental location.

“Enterprise is committed to supporting new technologies and alternative fuels as they become commercially viable, and we’ll continue to make them more accessible to our customers,” Irwin added.

The Enterprise Sacramento location is the first “Green Branch” to be designated by the company in the state of California. (The company opened 4 “Green Branches” in Atlanta, GA in April 2008.) During the past year, Enterprise has officially designated a total of eight “E85/FlexFuel” branches in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Grapevine, Texas; and Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; and Miami, FL. Nationally, Enterprise is actively deploying as many of its FlexFuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations in order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

The Taylor family of companies, which includes Enterprise, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, owns and operates the world’s largest vehicle fleet, which includes 4,000 hybrids, 73,000 FlexFuel vehicles, and 440,000 fuel-efficient vehicles.

“In order to be successful in the future, our businesses need two things – cars and fuel, said Irwin. For us, environmental stewardship is about sustaining our business for the long term by addressing the parts of the world our business touches. Embracing new technologies like hybrids and alternative technologies like FlexFuel in other parts of the country, is a step in the right direction to reduce vehicle emissions and limit our dependence on fossil fuels.”

The Taylor family’s focus on alternative technologies and fuel-efficient vehicles is just part of the industry’s most comprehensive environmental sustainability platform. The other major elements of the company’s stewardship commitment are:

Customer Carbon Offsets – Enterprise, National and Alamo offer customers the opportunity to benefit the environment by offsetting the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of their rental cars. By opting in to pay $1.25 per rental, customers will fund certified offset projects through TerraPass that work to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This cost is based on the average CO2 emissions generated by a rental car operating in the fleet. The company’s charitable foundation will match customer contributions dollar-for-dollar, up to $1 million per year.
The world’s largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles – More than 440,000 cars in the combined Enterprise, National and Alamo worldwide fleet average a highway fuel efficiency rating of at least 28 mpg or better, and more than 237,000 average 32 mpg or better. In addition, 264,000 have earned the U.S. EPA’s SmartWay certification mark – a distinction the EPA grants to vehicles that emit relatively low levels of both regulated pollutants and greenhouse gases such as CO2.
Embracing new, clean technologies – Enterprise, National and Alamo own about 4,000 gas/electric hybrid vehicles. They also operate the world’s largest fleet of FlexFuel vehicles – more than 73,000 cars and trucks that have the ability to burn E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. In addition, nationally, the company is actively deploying as many of its FlexFuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations in order to build consumer awareness and increase the number of cars being fueled with E85, which according to the U.S. EPA can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 20 percent.
Research – In 2007, the Taylor family donated $25 million to create the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels at one of the world’s foremost plant research centers. The institute works to develop acceptable alternatives to finite fossil fuels by finding new ways to create fuel from renewable, reliable plant sources.
Conservation – The company’s charitable foundation is funding the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years at a total cost of $50 million through the 50 Million Tree Pledge, a public/private/non-profit partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service. The trees are being planted on public lands in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

All told, over the past several years the Taylor family and their companies have contributed or pledged more than $120 million to environmental initiatives. For more information about the full environmental platform, visit www.keystogreen.com.