"Although at first renewable diesel seemed too good to be true, it truly has proven to be a ‘miracle fuel'."

A circular approach to fueling: the City of Oakland turns its used cooking oil into renewable diesel to fuel their vehicles and reduce their carbon footprint.

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City of Oakland:

100% of Oakland’s fleet runs on renewable diesel
74% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
First U.S. city to switch entire fleet to renewable diesel

The city of Oakland and Neste have been collecting waste feedstock from the city and converting it to Neste MY Renewable Diesel™ to fuel the city's fleet.

The city, Neste, fuel distributor Western States Oil and local collectors for used cooking oil joined forces to gather waste cooking oils from restaurants and other businesses in the Oakland metropolitan area and convert it to fuel the city’s fleet. By making waste more valuable and supporting jobs that collect and treat it, this concept helps the local economy in the city while the cleaner-burning Neste MY Renewable Diesel improves the lives of its residents by reducing local emissions from the city’s fleet.

3 challenges faced by City of Oakland

Reduce carbon footprint
Improve city air quality
Reliable, high-performing fuel

"Oakland is a proud leader in protecting our environment and practicing the highest levels of sustainability,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said. “This bold move gives our residents cleaner air, and it takes us one important step forward in our work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Solution

Better for the climate, better for communities

By switching to Neste MY Renewable Diesel, the city of Oakland’s fleet was able to cut engine-out greenhouse gas emissions by 74 percent, fine particulates by 33 percent, carbon monoxide emissions by 24 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 9 percent, compared to fossil diesel. The switch to renewable diesel is absolutely the easiest alternative fuel implementation that I have ever experienced.”said Richard Battersby, Assistant Director of Public Works, City of Oakland. Making the switch was a great step toward clearing the air for the community, but Oakland wanted to do more. Inspired by the “circular economy” model, which encourages the reuse of materials that are traditionally thrown away, city leaders began to search for a way to repurpose the city’s waste and give it a new life.

Turning trash into top-quality fuel

To that end, the city of Oakland and Neste joined forces to gather waste cooking oils from restaurants and other businesses in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan area. Neste transforms this waste into renewable diesel, and then returns it to the city to fuel its municipal fleet.

This concept creates a win-win-win for the city, its businesses and its residents. It helps the local economy in and around Oakland, improves air quality in the city, and, of course, ensures that its food waste doesn’t go to waste.