Trying to buff its image, the drugmaker wants to convert all 6,000-plus cars in its sales fleet to hybrids in hopes of reducing the carbon emissions its employees pump into the atmosphere. The cars driven by sales reps currently are estimated to represent about 11 percent of Abbott’s total emissions, and the drugmaker plans to buy ‘carbon credits’ in early 2008 to offset CO2 production.

Among the goals: by 2011, reduce by 30 percent the overall CO2 emissions and overall electric energy purchased by 12 percent. Besides the use of hybrid cars, the energy reduction is supposed to be achieved by using solar energy to power a California plant that makes stents.

In trumpeting its plans, Abbott is making a point of saying its the first Fortune 500 company to go ‘carbon neutral.’ The move is likely to win praise from the environmentally conscious crowd, but unlikely to make a dent among others who have harshly criticized the drugmaker for its decision to withhold new meds from Thailand after the country broke a patent on its popular Kaletra AIDS med.

Winning over its own sales reps may be iffy, meanwhile, depending upon the hybrid. Sales reps don’t have to exchange their current vehicles, because the upgrade is optional. But Abbott hasn’t indicated which hybrid will be available. The Prius (see photo) may not be the best choice. Earlier this year, some Novartis reps groused when they were told to drive a Prius or pay something themselves to drive a different car, like the upscale BMW X5 some prefer.