Vehicle
fleet - Christchurch City Council
Summary
Christchurch City Council has a large vehicle fleet and recently undertook a comprehensive process to assess and determine where improvements to sustainability could best be gained.
Key drivers
Council has a strong commitment to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction, with the vehicle fleet providing a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions from council operations.
In 2002 Christchurch City Council resolved that "sustainability issues relating to the Council's fleet be reviewed regularly and staff report annually on new opportunities becoming available to the Council resulting from technological progress by the motor industry and environmental improvements achieved".
Since 1996 council has also made mandatory energy efficiency audits on all large projects (refer to section 1.3 Energy Efficiency and Sustainability Assessment). Christchurch also has a significant natural smog hazard, and as such the reduction of particulate matter emissions is a council priority.
Project detail
In 2003 council undertook an evaluation process to assess the most effective options to improve fleet sustainability. The sustainability assessment found that alternative fuel sources were currently not an option worth pursuing due to lack of availability of these vehicles in New Zealand and the current cost barrier.
Council therefore focused on how to have the most impact through improved vehicle choice and overall fleet design. This involved ensuring that the fleet was the right size in terms of numbers of vehicles of adequate engine size, as well as a review of the environmental performance of the vehicles and assessing the manufacturers own environmental operations.
The project to improve the sustainability of council's fleet resulted in the replacement of 108 aging vehicles with more environmentally preferable vehicles. At 7.2 litres per 100km the new petrol vehicles purchased were on average 11% more efficient than the older vehicles replaced.
Whilst increasing the efficiency of the fleet vehicles, council also increased car pooling options to allow a reduction in the number of vehicles purchased. This saw a reduction in fleet size from around 380 to 325 fleet vehicles.
As part of this process, council specified that all new cars meet the Euro IV standard relating to vehicle exhaust emissions other than greenhouse gases, such as particulate matter and nitric oxide. This standard is more stringent than the current standards in New Zealand and will not become mandatory in Europe until 2007.
Council has also adopted a policy to change over each fleet vehicle more frequently (every three years), allowing council to take advantage of new environmentally preferable technologies quicker.
Key challenges
Christchurch City Council found that the use of fleet vehicles was an emotive issue for staff, especially when council looked to decrease fleet numbers. A way council identified to alleviate some staff concerns with the use of fleet vehicles for car pooling was to increase the cleaning standards of the fleet to ensure that staff felt comfortable in the car they received when utilising vehicles from the fleet pool.
Another key challenge to increasing the sustainability of the fleet was ensuring that vehicles were used to optimal benefit as driver behaviour can greatly affect fuel usage. Council has started tracking council vehicle movements and kilometres to ensure that vehicles are being appropriately utilised. Council will soon start to target excessively heavy users of fuel and provide driver training for improvement.
Another key challenge faced by council was balancing the most important environmental impacts. Although diesel vehicles can, in many cases, have lower greenhouse gas emissions, they also have increased particulate matter emissions and as such could increase smog levels. As such, council has made a decision not to purchase diesel vehicles.
Outcomes of Project
This project has resulted in fuel savings of $11,000 and a reduction of 28 tonnes of CO2 each year. The incorporation of full life cycle cost considerations was a key basis for council spending more for more energy efficient vehicles.
