About 20 years ago, as childhood asthma was raging in the South Bronx, Juan Corcino found it hard to breathe on the way to his job in Hunts Point. The culprit was all around him: diesel exhaust– spewing delivery trucks, including those belonging to his employer, Manhattan Beer Distributors.

So when the company's chief executive, Simon Bergson, gave him the task of converting the trucks to much cleaner natural gas—with the help of federal clean-air incentives—he was ready. He had just one problem: Nobody manufactured natural gas trucks.

By Matthew Flamm, Crain’s New York Business.