On November 12, 2009, Mexico City Metrobus received the 2009 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The Mexico City Metrobus is a bus rapid transit system that has significantly reduced air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the world's second largest city.
This award is presented bi-annually and recognizes an outstanding public-private partnership project that enhances environmental quality through the use of novel and creative approaches.
By introducing buses that operate on clean-burning ultra low sulfur diesel fuel and convincing many commuters to leave their cars at home, the Mexico City's metro bus system has reduced carbon dioxide emissions from traffic by an estimated eighty thousand tons per year. In addition, due to the expansion of the system, a total of 839 polluting mini-buses have been permanently removed from the roads. New corridors are planned and will expand the system to ten corridors by 2012.
The Metrobus system is part of Mexico City's fifteen-year climate action plan focused on furthering environmentally consciousness and sustainability by, among other steps, reducing transportation-related emissions.