You will always find a handkerchief in Johnny Harjantho’s pocket. The 46-year-old managing director of SMART Automobile used to tie a handkerchief around his face when he was a teenager, to help him brave the pollution as he rode around on his motorcycle in Jakarta. That’s why it’s his habit now to always carry a handkerchief wherever he goes.

Perhaps it was this early realisation that clean air cannot be taken for granted that Harjantho decided to create an environmentally friendly taxi company. SMART Automobile is Singapore’s first fleet of taxis to run on compressed natural gas (CNG). It now has more than 100 CNG taxis on the road.

Of course, having a bottom-line benefit to doing so helps too. CNG costs considerably less than the after-discount pump price of diesel fuel. Because of its environmentally friendly fleet, SMART also enjoys a generous incentive, plus a special tax exempt until the end of 2007. On top of this, SMART received a $2 million grant from the Innovation for Environmental Sustainability (IES) Fund, contributing to their $5.3 million project to set up one mother station and two satellite CNG refuelling stations, as it is not feasible or convenient to refill from the only CNG refuelling station on Jurong Island.