Electrify Our Ride

With a fleet of nearly 500 vehicles, UB is heavily dependent on our wheels. Electric vehicles are safer, reliable, economically competitive and can be fueled by clean energy sources. Electrifying our campus fleet is critical to making a dent in our carbon footprint while increasing campus safety through automation. By 2025, new mobility purchases will be fueled by clean and renewable electricity, thus phasing out the use of fossil fuel.

Sub-strategies

Phase I (2019): Convene a task force to investigate electric charging infrastructure requirements, capital costs, effect on existing utilities, emission reductions, O&M costs, and other factors.

Phase II (2022): Create a triple-bottom-line framework for University units to leverage when looking to purchase electric vehicles. The analysis will clearly illustrate the EV capital and operational costs versus traditional carbon polluting vehicles which will allow units to make informed purchasing decisions. This will include the price of fuel, maintenance, training requirements, carbon impacts, and other factors.

Phase III (2025): Mandate all new university vehicle purchase (where technically and economically feasible) be EV and transition the University's bussing contract and internal bussing services to 100% electrification by 2025.

Policies

Internal University policies will be developed and adopted to accelerate the procurement of electric fleet vehicle use across all campuses.

Updates

Fall 2020 - Spring 2021

The committee established 16 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations on North and South Campus. They are looking into potential means of mobility such as E-bikes and electric scooters. The committee held meetings with the National Grid and has explored options of funding and cost savings for the procurement of an EV fleet for the university. They are currently gathering reports and data from the university’s police and fleet department to determine the degree of expansion. In the next year, the committee will be creating a framework to inform future EV purchases which will include an analysis of EV capital and current operating costs.