About

Clean Air Cab is a subsidiary of its parent company, Beyond Green, L.L.C.  Both companies are owned and founded by Steve Lopez of Ahwatukee, AZ.  The mission of the parent company, Beyond Green, is to create a series of sustainable businesses that make make eco-friendly choices convenient and affordable for consumers.  Right now Beyond Green feels that the general public believes that green products and services cost more and are out-of-the-way.  Beyond Green would like to change that paradigm.  It has started with Clean Air Cab.  Clean Air Cab is Beyond Green’s first business entity.

Clean Air Cab is Arizona's first carbon negative taxicab service.  Its mission is to make it affordable and convenient for everyone to go green by offering green cabs at less expensive rates than traditional cab alternatives.  While many consumers expect to pay more for green alternatives that benefit the planet, Clean Air Cab's rates are slightly less than their competitors. 

Launched in October 2009, the eco-friendly transportation company has a fleet of 26 Toyota Priuses, currently the most fuel-efficient hybrid auto on the market.  Clean Air Cab serves the entire Phoenix Metropolitan area and plans to grow its fleet to 200+ cabs.

Clean Air Cab's fleet is composed of 100 per cent hybrid vehicles.  The Ford Crown Victorias traditionally used by cab companies releases approximately 160 per cent more emissions than the hybrid vehicles used by Clean Air Cab.  A fleet of 26 traditional taxis would produce approximately 1800 tons of greenhouse gases per year. Clean Air Cab’s fleet of 26 taxis will not produce any.  The Toyota Prius also offers an extra 33 miles per gallon of gas - a gas savings of almost 1,000 miles per gallon across the fleet. 

In addition to the substantial reduction of carbon emissions and improved mileage offered by its fleet, Clean Air Cab purchases carbon offsets and supports global reforestation by subsidizing the planting of 10 rain forest trees monthly for each cab in service.  Clean Air Cab intends to plant 10 trees each month for every cab in service, and it has already planted 260 for the month of October. 

“We believe that going green isn’t something you do - it is something you are,” said Steve Lopez, founder of Clean Air Cab.  “Our intention is to take the trendy out of ‘going green’ and deliver a product that allows consumers to be green just by participating.” 

Strategy

Clean Air Cab pays for and participates in an array of programs that reduces the carbon in the atmosphere.  It purchases carbon offsets and plants trees.  Trees for Tempe is its local partner, and Trees for the Future is its global partner.  Other programs involve a range of initiatives, from supporting solar and wind power to replacing fossil fuel–burning stoves in developing countries with more sustainable energy sources.

Clean Air Cab is a carbon neutral taxicab service. The first thing that it did to reduce its emissions was to build an entire fleet of hybrid vehicles.  All of its cabs are 2010 Toyota Priuses, which produce 62 per cent less emissions than a tradition Ford Crown Victoria taxicab.  Since hybrid vehicles do still produce some emissions, Clean Air Cab decided to offset the rest of its carbon by purchasing carbon offsets.  It partnered with a nonprofit called Carbon Fund and decided to help fund one of its projects.  The credits Clean Air Cab purchased help fund a project called the “Truck Stop Electrification Project,” which reduces tailpipe emissions from freight trucks that transport consumer good across the United States.

These efforts alone are what make Clean Air Cab a completely carbon neutral taxicab fleet.  However, Clean Air decided to go a step even further.  Clean Air Cab wants to give back more than it takes away.  It decided to plant ten trees each month for every cab in its fleet. Currently its fleet has 26 vehicles, so it is planting 260 trees each month in the rainforest in Brazil with another one of its strategic business partners, Trees for the Future.  It is also working with Trees for Tempe, a local nonprofit in Arizona to reforest in the surrounding community.

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