The Twin Rivers Unified School District near Sacramento, California, has switched 75 school buses from petroleum to renewable diesel. The green fuel is made by Finland-based Neste Corp., which owns a large biorefinery in Singapore from where Neste exports its renewable diesel to the West Coast, and distributed by Van De Pol Petroleum.

"Yesterday, our fleet of diesel-powered school buses were contributing to air pollution and climate change," said Timothy Shannon, Twin Rivers USD director of transportation. "Now, they are helping fight these two big problems. All it took for us to start creating a healthier, more sustainable future for the children and communities served by Twin Rivers was to switch from fossil to renewable diesel―probably one of the easiest decisions we've ever had to make."

Twin Rivers USD has 26,000 students and, last year, the school district started using electric buses. Now, by simply changing fuel types, it can achieve an 80 percent reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from its remaining fleet of diesel-powered buses.

"Renewable diesel can not only accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels, it also enables us to create a circular economy," said Carrie Song, Neste's vice president of renewable road transport for the Americas. "Going forward, it would be great for Neste and Twin Rivers to take our partnership to the next level by using the school district's waste to produce the renewable diesel for its buses."

Neste has set a lofty target to make its production operations carbon neutral by 2035. The company is also researching and developing a new generation of raw materials―including municipal solid waste, forestry waste, and even converting power to liquids―allowing for even greater greenhouse gas savings.