Being a GNA team member for all these years has been such a rewarding experience. Everyday I’m inspired by what we achieve as we work towards an environmentally and socially responsible future. When I joined GNA in 2008 we were 17 employees. Everyone pitched in to work on pioneering clean transportation and energy projects, it was a real team effort. Today there are over 70 people employed at GNA. The company growth echoes the tremendous momentum in the advanced transportation and clean energy markets over the past decade. With this growth, GNA’s team spirit is even more apparent. We all take pride in the work we do to improve air quality and increase the use of clean fuels and advanced technologies in transportation.
What we do at GNA makes a real difference in the world around us. Two examples from my personal experience include truck replacement projects on the West and East Coasts.
In 2008 I worked on the groundbreaking Clean Trucks Program with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which retired older heavy-polluting diesel drayage trucks and replaced them with cleaner trucks that met U.S. EPA heavy-duty truck emissions standards. GNA assisted truck drivers and trucking companies that haul containers in the ports with applications for Prop 1B grant funds to replace their old trucks with new diesel or alternative fueled trucks. When we began in 2008 the air over these ports was visibly thick with smog. By 2010 we could see the difference in the air quality, the orange air was disappearing. We saw with our own eyes the impact the program had as the older trucks were replaced. The program continues today and has reduced air pollution from harbor trucks by more than 90%.
I’ve worked with the NYC Department of Transportation for several years as a team member on the Hunts Point Clean Trucks Program, funding replacement trucks in the Bronx with Federal Highway Administration CMAQ funds. This program expanded in 2020 with Volkswagen Settlement funding to include trucks operating in the Industrial Business Zones in environmental justice communities in New York City and was renamed the NYC Clean Trucks Program. Both these NYC programs have reduced significant levels of NOx, PM2.5, and CO annually when compared to the emissions profile of the older, diesel fueled vehicles that were replaced.
I can see with my own eyes how these programs on both coasts have improved air quality, and I can read the numbers that illustrate the emissions reductions. GNA really is working to drive a more sustainable future. I couldn’t be a prouder member of the GNA team.
