UPS says it plans to build 15 compressed natural gas fueling stations to support the purchase and planned deployment of 1,400 new CNG vehicles over the next year.

Twelve of the CNG stations will be in new natural gas vehicle deployment areas, and three will replace existing CNG stations with higher-capacity equipment.

This purchase represents a nearly 30 percent increase to UPS’s current alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet of 5,088 vehicles worldwide.

“UPS’s investment in a large scale alternative energy fleet has enabled the company to avoid more than 34 million gallons of conventional fuels since 2000,” said Mitch Nichols, UPS senior vice president of transportation and engineering.

When the deployments are completed, UPS anticipates its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet will continue to log more than 350 million miles per year, supporting the company’s goal of driving 1 billion miles in this fleet by the end of 2017. This will displace about 54 million gallons of conventional diesel and gasoline annually while reducing total vehicle emissions.

According to the Department of Energy, the use of natural gas instead of gasoline cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent to 11 percent over the fuel life cycle.

UPS plans to deploy new CNG vehicles in 15 cities. The cities are Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston, West Virginia; Dallas, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Doraville, Georgia; Lenexa, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Montgomery, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana; New Stanton, Pennsylvania; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Port Allen, Louisiana; Shreveport, Louisiana; Richmond, Virginia and Roanoke, Virginia.

Currently UPS already has a total of eight CNG fueling stations in California, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma and operates CNG vehicles in Germany, the Netherlands and Thailand.

Last month UPS said it expects its On-Road Integrated Optimization Navigation (ORION) routing system to reduce by 100 million miles annually the distance driven by its drivers, when fully implemented in 2016.