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NEWS
Report card for Sustainable Sydney
Australia's first city makes it look easy to be green, but it takes determinationThe City of Sydney won the Australian Fleet Management Association's Environment Award last year, reflecting a strong commitment to reducing its impact on the environment.
It's a commitment that is the inexorable outcome of a local government body blessed with "a reasonably healthy budget and a bit of an ego," to use the words of Chris Binns.
As manager for Sydney's Strategy and Assets department, Binns overseas the implementation of greener solutions for the city's fleet of cars and trucks. Appearing last week at the Cars of Tomorrow conference he outlined the pace of change in the way Sydney's transport fleet is responding to the future needs of the environment.
So far the city has reduced its fleet CO2 emissions from 3370 tonnes to 2746 – around the 20 per cent figure expected by 2014 and the cause celebre that prompted the 2012 Environment Award from the AFMA. Achieving that hasn't been without its 'culture-clash' moments however. Employees had to be levered out of their 2.5-tonne trucks into dual-cab utes, or out of their Ford Rangers into what Binns described as "a French baker's van".
The city clearly turned tone deaf when it came to complaints from its employees about driving vehicles that were "an affront to their ego," as Binns explained it, but there was one vehicle – the smart fortwo – that received such a "poor response", the city could not ignore the outcry. Sydney is not buying any more of the smart cars.
And the purchase of cars for the fleet is a moving feast. Sydney has operated up to 50 units of the second-generation Toyota Prius, but is now purchasing the more affordable Prius c as the older hybrids are replaced. That is the one shortcoming of the Toyota hybrids, according to Binns – resale.
But the uncertain future of resale values hasn't deterred the city from purchasing the Nissan LEAF (pictured). To date Sydney operates 10 of the electric vehicles – with four of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV also on the fleet – and more of the Nissans will be acquired to replace the Prius in cases where an EV can be viable. Typically that's short-range travel around more congested areas.
Reducing fuel use and CO2 emissions isn't merely a matter of downsizing fleet vehicles; it's also a question of educating drivers. Sydney goes to the trouble of re-training drivers to take more care when operating vehicles... and the fleet managers are not shy about praising those who drive economically. According to Binns, one fleet driver drove his VW Caddy for 1165km on the one tank of fuel. That's hard enough on an interstate trip, let alone the inner suburbs of the country's most populous city.
Other measures adopted to reduce the impact on the environment include biofuel for the city's diesel-powered commercial vehicles. The city began using biofuel in 2006, but soon learned that its supplier was sourcing palm oil from Malaysia – long associated with extensive forest clearing, and not something a modern, eco-sensitive city would accept. Finding a supplier more holistically concerned for the environment took time, but the city switched suppliers in 2010. The new supplier produces biofuel from used cooking oil and tallow.
At the cost of $12 million, Sydney has deployed a PV (photo-voltaic cell) array that can recharge 20 EVs at the Town Hall, with more government buildings to follow.
Walking is a low-tech solution the city is promoting for the reduction of CO2 emissions and the limiting of non-renewable fuel use. Binns says that staff are encouraged to walk (or take a pushbike) if human power is a viable alternative to sitting in an LPG-fuelled taxi that takes just as long to reach the destination through congested traffic.
Sydney is leading the way in sustainable fleet transport – and there's the promise of more gains just from the inertia of downsizing vehicles and re-educating drivers – but it doesn't have to end there, suggests Binns, who would be "particularly keen to see hybrid technologies come into larger vehicles... and electric technology as well."
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Written byKen Gratton
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