AUTHOR Robert Gillespie

Hertz Wins Corporate Responsibility Champion Award

The Council of Corporate responsibility, in partnership with the National Diversity Council, has given this year’s prestigious CR Champion Award to Hertz. It is a fitting tribute to a car hire company that has made notable efforts to develop policies and practices which promote responsible environmental stewardship.

Hertz has demonstrated its commitment to a greener future in a number of different and interconnected ways. For example, nearly 80% of its hire vehicles have a minimum fuel efficiency rating of over 28 miles per gallon on the highway, and 80% of its car washes use reclaimed water.

That’s good for the environment as well as financially beneficial to Hertz customers. The company also recycled over two million gallons of oil and 300,000 used tires in a single year, keeping all that toxic waste out of the nation’s landfills.

Seven Hertz buildings in the United States, including its world headquarters, have been certified “green” by LEED, a worldwide green building certification program. They also plan to build many more.

Earlier this year, the company implemented a carbon offset program that enables corporate customers to offset their carbon footprint when hiring a Hertz vehicle. A program has been developed to calculate the precise carbon footprint of every car hire, and attaches a price to offset these emissions.

Payments through this voluntary program support projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote clean energy technologies. This includes forest management projects and those that capture landfill gas.

Winning the CR Champion Award follows on the recognition Hertz received in 2016 from the Global Business Travel Association. It named Hertz one of the winners of its Sustainability Outstanding Achievement Awards. The company ranked 54th in the 2015 US Green Companies Report, and these latest awards are sure to see them climb.

We all share a responsibility for reducing the factors that contribute to climate change, and carbon dioxide emissions are a chief culprit. At Indigo Car Hire, we are proud to partner with exemplary companies like Hertz who are doing their bit to create a greener future for all of us.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller