Sept. 25, 2008 - An Enterprise Rent-A-Car location near California's state capitol has become the company's first "green branch" in the state, specializing in hybrid and fuel-efficient rental cars. Seventy percent of the downtown Sacramento "green branch" fleet will be comprised of hybrid gas/electric vehicles and fuel-efficient vehicles that average at least 28 mpg or better.

During the past year the company has designated four green branches (all in Atlanta, Ga.) and eight "E85/Flex Fuel" branches nationally. Enterprise says it is actively deploying as many of its flex-fuel vehicles as possible near E85 fueling stations to build consumer awareness of the alternative fuel, E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.

"In order to be successful in the future, our businesses need two things - cars and fuel," says Susie Irwin, vice president and general manager for Enterprise in Sacramento. "For us, environmental stewardship is about sustaining our business for the long term by addressing the parts of the world our business touches. Embracing new technologies is a step in the right direction to reduce vehicle emissions and limit our dependence on fossil fuels."

The Taylor family of companies, which includes Enterprise, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car, has introduced an overarching environmental platform that includes the introduction of green IT initiatives to streamline internal operations, and also incorporates:

Carbon offsets: Customers are given the opportunity to offset the CO2 emissions of their rental cars.

The world's largest fleet of fuel-efficient vehicles: The group includes 4,000 hybrids, 73,000 FlexFuel vehicles, and 440,000 fuel-efficient vehicles, of which over half have earned the U.S. EPA's SmartWay certification mark.

Research: In 2007, the Taylor family donated $25 million to create the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Institute for Renewable Fuels, finding new ways to create fuel from renewable, reliable plant sources.

Conservation: The company's charitable foundation is spending $50 million to plant 50 million trees over the next 50 years, through a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and the U.S. Forest Service.

For more information about the company s environmental platform, click here.