City of Cambridge kicks off Green Fleet program with new electric vehicles for Building Inspectors

Posted on Wednesday July 29, 2020

As part of an ongoing effort to reduce our carbon footprint, the City of Cambridge has introduced seven fully-electric vehicles to its fleet. These vehicles are 100 per cent battery powered.

“I’m pleased that staff are always looking for ways to improve our sustainability as a city and these vehicles are another step in that direction,” says Mayor Kathryn McGarry. “The plan is to continually keep introducing more clean air technologies across all divisions.”

The new 2020 Chevrolet Bolt vehicles will be used by the City’s building inspectors and will feature an identifying Green Fleet logo. With almost 90 per cent lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, these vehicles will help achieve emission reduction goals. The Green Fleet will also represent overall savings for the City in terms of lower operating and maintenance costs.

As fleet assets are replaced through the life cycle management process, the City will continue to update vehicles with environmentally- friendly technologies as part of a corporate target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. 

“Environmental stewardship is a priority for our city operations,” says Yogesh Shah, Director of Asset Management and Project Management Office. “In addition to expanding our green fleet, we’ll also continue to develop supporting infrastructure, such as adding additional electric vehicle chargers for corporate and community use, and identifying other areas of environmental efficiencies in our facilities and operations.”

For more information on sustainability at the City, visit www.cambridge.ca/sustainability.

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Backgrounder

In November 2019, City Council joined other area municipalities in declaring a Climate Crisis and adopting the “80 by 50” target for an 80 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The City’s corporate Energy Conservation/Green House Gas (GHG) Plan applies to facilities, fleet and operations. This includes:

  • Council-approved ban on the purchase of single use plastics.
  • Introduction of a waste audit to identify areas for improvement.
  • Continuous improvements to energy use and lighting at parks, recreation properties and facilities (0verall in 2019, the City had 381,539 kW in energy savings and reduced GHG emissions by over 45 tonnes through energy retrofits and lighting upgrades).
  • New dog waste collection units to divert waste from landfill and convert the waste into energy. Four of these units were installed in 2019, which will remove the equivalent of 0.36 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere and generate enough energy to power 7.19 homes for a year
  • Partnering with Reep Green Solutions, an environmental charity that helps people in the Waterloo Region live sustainably. The Reep team now has a “touch-down” desk in City Hall as a way to further our partnership and collaboration.
  • Ongoing work on a number of sustainability initiatives including ClimateActionWR, neighbourhood-based flood prevention, and urban forestry renewal programs
  • Implementing a Climate Adaptation Action Plan to manage impacts of climate change.
  • Enhancements and new city trail projects; community engagement on the Cycling Master Plan.

 

Primary media contact

Erin Haase
Communications Advisor
City of Cambridge
haasee@cambridge.ca