Our work to become carbon neutral by 2030 and support a sustainable Elmbridge continues with the Green Fleet Strategy 2030, which sets out our plan to decarbonise the council’s fleet vehicles by 2030.
The Green Fleet Strategy and phased vehicle replacement programme will see eight vehicles replaced in 2023/24: that’s 28% of the current fleet moving to electric within the first year.
Climate change and air pollution remain two of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century and we are committed to leading the way when addressing these issues at a local level. Our service vehicles have long played an important and essential role in daily operational activities such as maintaining our parks, transporting elderly and vulnerable residents, and undertaking enforcement. It is important to us that council vehicles minimise harmful emissions to support clean air and help tackle the climate crisis.
We also appreciate that fundamentally we need to change the way we operate and deliver services that use our vehicles. Improving the energy efficiency of the fleet by reducing mileage for example, analysing fleet usage, and encouraging the use of pool cars, will lead to further reductions of both emissions and costs and this strategy aims to do just that.
An interim measure from the strategy, will be transferring our Community Support Services diesel fleet to ‘Green BioFuel’.
The Green Fleet Strategy focuses on our own vehicles, and the decarbonisation of the fleet with contractors, for example the waste collection fleet, will be considered separately and within the contracts for those services as part of any future re-procurement. Our green spaces contractor Glendale, already uses electric vehicles.
Funding pressures continue at Elmbridge, as they do with councils around the country, but we are committed to pursuing any central or local government funding to help tackle climate change and ‘green’ our fleet.
At the heart of the Green Fleet Strategy is our aim to become a carbon neutral organisation 2030 by procuring zero tailpipe emissions vehicles and eliminating diesel cars from the fleet, without compromising the services we deliver. We know there is a lot to do on working towards a sustainable Elmbridge, but we are determined to put in the effort, the resource and the energy needed to get us there.
Cllr David Young, Portfolio Holder for Climate Change