DFW AIRPORT, Texas — March 4, 2021 — Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport’s commitment to sustainability – including a fleet that minimizes its impact on the region – earned two awards from the Dallas-Fort Worth Clean Cities Coalition recently.
DFW Airport was one of 8 public-sector fleets to earn Gold Level recognition when the Clean Cities Coalition announced the winners of its Fleet Recognition Awards. It is the first Gold Level recognition for the Airport. Overall, 22 public sector fleets from around the DFW region were recognized for efforts to reduce petroleum use and improve air quality in North Texas. Along with the Airport, other first-time Gold recipients were the cities of Carrollton, Dallas, Denton and Lewisville. The second-year Gold Level winners were cities of Euless and Southlake and Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
In addition to the fleet recognition, Clean Cities also highlighted significant improvements in areas such as the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx), transition to alternative fuels and gasoline gallon equivalent savings through the new Shining Stars Awards. DFW Airport was one of six named as a Shining Star, joining the cities of Denton and North Richland Hills, Denton ISD, Span Transit and Trinity Metro.
The RNG Initiative transitioned DFW Airport’s compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fleet to renewable natural gas (RNG) and helped it earn the new 4+ level in ACI’s global Airport Carbon Accreditation program in 2020. Through the RNG initiative, the Airport dramatically reduced vehicle fleet emissions and as of June 2020, 70 percent of the natural gas used in the vehicle fleet came from RNG. Not only did the change eliminate nearly 17,000 tons of CO2, it lowered operations and maintenance cost by $1 million per year.
Awards were presented based on scores from the DFW Clean Cities Annual Survey. The winners of Silver Level recognition were the cities of Bedford, Coppell, Irving and Mesquite, and Denton and Prosper independent school districts. The Bronze Level organizations were the cities of Arlington, Addison, Frisco, Flower Mound, North Richland Hills and Watauga, along with Tarrant County and Trinity Metro.
Overall, the 22 honored fleets helped the region post impressive reductions, including:
- 26,029,278 gallons of gasoline equivalent
- 840,208 pounds of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx)
- 72,094 tons of greenhouse gas emissions
The Clean Cities initiative is a locally based, public-private partnership that promotes practices and decisions to reduce petroleum consumption and improve air quality in the transportation sector. Clean Cities has a goal of increasing petroleum reduction by 15% a year. The annual survey helps track that progress. For more information, visit www.dfwcleancities.org.