The Eco CEO

Scott Griffith
48, Boston
CLAIM TO FAME As CEO and president of Zipcar, the country's largest car sharing service, Griffith has made self-service, on-demand rental cars a mainstream amenity in 10 states and 29 cities, changing the way urban dwellers view owning a car and how much they drive. "We're trying to make getting a car as easy as getting cash from an ATM," he says. Each of Griffith's cars takes 20 privately owned vehicles off the road, reducing urban congestion, emissions and parking demand. Zipcar's 50,000 members (almost 40% of whom have either sold their car or decided not to buy one) can reserve one of 1,100 cars online or by phone and have automated access to it using a "Zipcard." Rates start at $7.50 per hour and $51 per day, including gas, parking, insurance, maintenance and XM Satellite Radio.

BIG BREAK Trained as an engineer, Griffith headed a software and services firm and an online public record information provider, and was a principle of a boutique business strategy and investment firm, before he took the wheel at Zipcar in 2003, three years after the cars first hit the road. "After growing up in Pittsburgh in the 80s watching the decline of the steel industry, I never wanted to be at the twilight of a company," he says. "I'm interested in creating new categories and shifting industry in some way." He's done just that, fostering the emergence of car sharing as a new transportation category. Under Griffith's leadership, Zipcar has grown seven times over, now raking in $30 million a year. He plans to have cars in 25 major metro markets by 2009, and to enter Canada and other international markets even sooner.

DESIGN TOUCHSTONE Zipcar's fleet consists of over 20 makes and models, 15 percent of which are hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Toyota RAV4 and Ford Escape SUVs. Also available are high-end vehicles like the Mini Cooper and BMW 325i, and soon, the BMW 5 Series. The cars can be found scattered around cities like Boston and San Francisco, or in places like New York state commuter rail stations, Washington Metro stations, or Ikea stores, some of which reserve parking spots for Zipcars.

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