The City is rapidly increasing its uptake of hybrid electric vehicles, as it moves to reduce fleet costs and limit carbon emissions.
There are currently five hybrid electric / petrol-powered cars in our fleet, made up of four Toyota Camrys and one Toyota Corolla.
We have placed orders for a further 19 hybrid Toyotas, which will replace existing similar model petrol / diesel-fuelled vehicles.
The purchases are part of a staged transition of our fleet, with the aim of adding electric vehicles (EV) in the future.
As part of this program, the City is investing in the necessary infrastructure to support the expected community uptake in EVs.
Electric vehicle charging stations have been installed at Cunningham Pier in Geelong, the Leopold Community Hub and the Armstrong Creek East Hub.
The design of new Council-owned buildings, such as the innovative and sustainable new Civic Precinct in Mercer Street, will include EV charging stations.
We strongly encourage any new large privately-owned commercial and residential buildings in Greater Geelong to provide dedicated EV charging infrastructure.
This requirement is included in the City's Environmentally Sustainable Design policy, which was finalised in September 2019.
The commitment to transition our vehicle fleet forms part of our Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy, which was endorsed in April 2017.
We reduced emissions from street lights, buildings and our vehicle fleet by seven per cent to June 2019, compared to 2014-15 levels.
This will be lifted to an estimated 65 per cent next year, when the City sources all of its electricity needs through renewable energy.
Through a nation-leading collective buying agreement with almost 50 other Victorian councils, we expect to have renewable energy contracts in place by the end of 2020.
The renewable energy will be used to power municipal offices, leisure centres, streetlights and community buildings.
This would help us meet the Zero Carbon Emission Strategy's goal of delivering a 50 per cent reduction in emissions from our buildings and vehicle fleet by 2020.
We are also pursuing a plan to replace our 20,000-plus existing streetlights with energy-efficient LED lighting, which when implemented would further reduce emissions and minimise costs.
Director City Services Guy Wilson-Browne
Our investment in electric hybrid vehicles and associated infrastructure will help us cut our own carbon emissions and encourage others to reduce their own environmental footprint.Along with our continued rollout of rooftop solar systems on City buildings, these initiatives demonstrate our ongoing effort to address the impacts of climate change.
Connecting Greater Geelong to the national electric vehicle charging station network is an important step towards meeting our community's Clever and Creative vision.
