FT. LAUDERDALE, FL - Sponsored by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners, First Vehicles Services (FVS) was recently awarded the 2009 Emerald Award for environmental excellence.

FVS has provided maintenance services to the Broward Sheriff's Office for the past 16 years, maintaining 3,200 vehicles for the county's Sheriffs Office and 230 vehicles for the Fire and Rescue division.

At the Sheriff's Office, FVS was the first to introduce the idea that ISO standards could be successfully adapted to an automotive repair station and has maintained the ISO 9001 Certification for five years now. According to FVS, only two such certifications exist in the state - both of which are at the Sheriff's Office.

Committed to becoming more environmentally friendly, Broward County Sheriff's Office employees implemented new and efficient processes to safely complete their duties and appropriately dispose of hazardous and wasteful material.

Environmental practices/policies/procedures include:

• Nitrogen fill in tires.

• Replacing lead tire weights with steel.

• Use of gas buggy to extract gasoline from vehicles undergoing fuel tank repair or replacement - the re-use of fuel (when possible).

• Sodium lights changed to halides.

• Non-solvent parts cleaner.

• Incandescent lights changed to fluorescent lights.

• Recycling program.