Corporate America is starting to look at the millions of cars it owns or leases for traveling salesmen, executives, and technicians as an area where it can cut down on greenhouse gases and save money on increasingly expensive gasoline, Christian Science Monitor reports.

Some recent examples:

• Abbott has shifted 20 percent of its fleet to green status
• Last month at an expo of the National Association of Fleet Administrators in Houston, managers of corporate fleets waited in line for test rides in hybrid vehicles and cars that use alternative fuels.
• Hertz Corp., owner of one of the largest automobile fleets in the nation, said it would buy 3,400 hybrids, an investment of $68 million, over the next two years.
• Enterprise, with the largest US rental-car fleet, will have more than 3,000 hybrids this year.

In a survey earlier this month by PHH Arval, one of the largest fleet-management services in the United States and Canada, 45 percent of fleet managers said their interest in the environment had grown significantly in the past year.

“One of the things that came out of the survey is that companies are struggling. They feel like there is not a good variety of vehicles that meets their needs and is available,” says Karen Healey, who is in charge of PHH’s green initiatives.

But there are still misconceptions about green fleets. A report from the Energy Saving Trust found that 31 percent of UK businesses still believe that running a green fleet will cost money. In contrast, according to EST, implementing green fleet management could save UK businesses GBP2.6 billion a year at no additional cost.