4.             FLEET EMISSION REDUCTION STRATEGY - MOTION

 

STRATÉGIE DE RÉDUCTION DES ÉMISSIONS DU PARC AUTOMOBILE - MOTION

 

 

Committee Recommendations as amended

 

That Council approve the following:

 

1.         That staff be directed to update the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy (FERS) by Q1 2009 and report back to Committee and Council on the new Green Fleet Policy within 6 months of the adoption of the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy; and,

 

2.         That the new green vehicle policy include, but not be limited to, the following;

·                    Adjusting the City’s procurement policy to favour the purchase of green vehicles as a standard practice, where such products are available within required delivery dates and cost effective while providing the flexibility to adopt promising new technologies and practices over time; and

·                    Continuing the current practice of providing a business case for the purchase of future green vehicles; and

 

3.         That until the new Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy is adopted, staff continues to reduce fleet emissions by replacing older vehicles with newer “green” ones to ensure the City meets new emissions criteria, and be directed to introduce "life cycle costing" in the vehicle and equipment procurement process, whereby staff will take into consideration the total life cycle costs of ownership (i.e. - depreciation, maintenance, fuel, etc) of a vehicle in determining which vehicle to purchase.

 

4.         That staff seek funding from the FCM Green Municipal Fund to offset the cost of developing the Green Fleet Policy/Strategy.

 

 

Recommandations modifiées du comité

 

Que le Conseil approuve ce qui suit :

 

1.         Qu’on demande au personnel de mettre à jour la Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile d’ici le premier trimestre de 2009 et de faire rapport au Comité et au Conseil sur la nouvelle politique pour un parc de véhicules écologiques dans les six mois suivant l’adoption de la Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile; et,

 

2.         Que la nouvelle politique pour un parc de véhicules écologiques comprenne, mais sans s’y limiter, les points suivants :

 

·                     l’ajustement de la politique de la Ville en matière d’approvisionnements, afin de favoriser l’achat de véhicules écologiques en tant que pratique normale, quand de tels véhicules peuvent être livrés aux dates requises et sont rentables, tout en gardant la souplesse nécessaire pour pouvoir adopter de nouvelles pratiques et de nouvelles technologies prometteuses au fil du temps; et, 

·                    la poursuite de la pratique actuelle consistant à fournir une analyse de rentabilisation à l’achat de futurs véhicules écologiques; et

 

3.         Que jusqu’à l’adoption de la nouvelle Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile, le personnel continue de reduire la quantité de nos émissions en remplaçant les plus vieux véhicules par de nouveaux véhicules plus « verts » afin de s’assurer que la Ville respecte les nouvelles exigences en matière d’émissions, et qu’on demande également au personnel d’inclure le
« coût du cycle de vie » dans le processus d’approvisionnement relatif aux véhicules et aux équipements, selon lequel le personnel tiendra compte des coûts totaux de la durée de propriété de ces véhicules ou équipements (c.-à-d. les coûts associés à la dépréciation, à l’entretien, au carburant, etc.) au moment de choisir les véhicules qui seront achetés.

 

4.         Que le personnel cherche à obtenir une subvention du Fonds municipal vert de la Fédération canadienne des municipalités (FCM) afin de contrebalancer les coûts d’élaboration de la politique/stratégie pour un parc de véhicules écologiques.

 

 

 

 

 

Documentation

 

1.   Transportation Committee Coordinator’s report dated 22 August 2008 (ACS2008-CCS-TRC-0017).

 

2.   Extract of Draft Minute, 3 September 2008.


Report to/Rapport au :

 

Transportation Committee

Comité des transports

 

and Council / et au Conseil

 

22 August 2008 / le 22 août 2008

 

Submitted by / Soumis par: Rosemary Nelson, Committee Coordinator /

Coordonnatrice de comité

 

Contact / Personne-ressource : Councillor Rainer Bloess
(613) 580-2472, Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca

 

 

City-wide/ à l'échelle de la Ville

Ref N°: ACS2008-CCS-TRC-0017

 

 

SUBJECT:

FLEET EMISSION REDUCTION STRATEGY - MOTION

 

 

OBJET :

STRATÉGIE DE RÉDUCTION DES ÉMISSIONS DU PARC AUTOMOBILE – MOTION

 

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

 

That the Transportation Committee recommend that Council approve the following:

 

1.         Direct staff to update the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy (FERS) by Q1 2009 and report back to Committee and Council on the new Green Fleet Policy within 6 months of the adoption of the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy; and,

 

2.         That the new green vehicle policy include, but not be limited to, the following;

·        Adjusting the City’s procurement policy to favour the purchase of green vehicles as a standard practice, while providing the flexibility to adopt promising new technologies and practices over time; and

·        Continuing the current practice of providing a business case for the purchase of future green vehicles; and

 

3.         That until the new Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy is adopted, staff continues to reduce fleet emissions by replacing older vehicles with newer “green” ones to ensure the City meets new emissions criteria, and be directed to introduce "life cycle costing" in the vehicle and equipment procurement process, whereby staff will take into consideration the total life cycle costs of ownership (i.e. - depreciation, maintenance, fuel, etc) of a vehicle in determining which vehicle to purchase.

 

 


RECOMMANDATIONS DU RAPPORT

 

Le Comité des transports recommande que le Conseil approuve ce qui suit :

 

1.         Qu’on demande au personnel de mettre à jour la Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile d’ici le premier trimestre de 2009 et de faire rapport au Comité et au Conseil sur la nouvelle politique pour un parc de véhicules écologiques dans les six mois suivant l’adoption de la Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile; et,

 

2.         Que la nouvelle politique pour un parc de véhicules écologiques comprenne, mais sans s’y limiter, les points suivants :

·        ajustement de la politique de la Ville en matière d’approvisionnements, afin de favoriser l’achat de véhicules écologiques en tant que pratique normale, tout en gardant la souplesse nécessaire pour pouvoir adopter de nouvelles pratiques et de nouvelles technologies prometteuses au fil du temps; et, 

·        poursuite de la pratique actuelle consistant à fournir une analyse de rentabilisation à l’achat de futurs véhicules écologiques; et

 

3.         Que jusqu’à l’adoption de la nouvelle Stratégie de réduction des émissions du parc automobile, le personnel continue de reduire la quantité de nos émissions en remplaçant les plus vieux véhicules par de nouveaux véhicules plus « verts » afin de s’assurer que la Ville respecte les nouvelles exigences en matière d’émissions, et qu’on demande également au personnel d’inclure le « coût du cycle de vie » dans le processus d’approvisionnement relatif aux véhicules et aux équipements, selon lequel le personnel tiendra compte des coûts totaux de la durée de propriété de ces véhicules ou équipements (c.-à-d. les coûts associés à la dépréciation, à l’entretien, au carburant, etc.) au moment de choisir les véhicules qui seront achetés.

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

On 20 August 2008, Councillor Bloess put forward the following Notice of Motion:

 

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa has over 3000 vehicles and pieces of equipment in its fleet and is committed to reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions; and

 

WHEREAS the City of Ottawa put in place a Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy in 2004, and many of the specific initiatives in that Strategy are already in place, including an anti-idling bylaw and use of solar panels to reduce idling, conversion to ethanol or bio-diesel fuels, replacing older vehicles with less polluting modern “green” vehicles, purchase of more fuel efficient models (including the purchase of 97 hybrid buses), right-sizing the fleet by buying the smallest vehicle practical, and the introduction of fuel efficient driving techniques through the Strategic Drive Program; and

 

WHEREAS the forecasted rise of fuel costs require a significant increase to the City’s expenditures and Council has directed staff to develop a new Green Fleet Policy and reduce fuel consumption for both environmental and economic reasons; and

 

WHEREAS the options for green products and vehicles is growing;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Transportation Committee direct that staff update the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy (FERS) by Q1 2009 and report back to Committee and Council on the new Green Fleet Policy within 6 months of the adoption of the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy; and  

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the new green vehicle policy include, but not be limited to, the following;

·        Adjusting the City’s procurement policy to favour the purchase of green vehicles as a standard practice, while providing the flexibility to adopt promising new technologies and practices over time; and

·        Continuing the current practice of providing a business case for the purchase of future green vehicles; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, until the new Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy is adopted, staff continues to improve fleet emissions by replacing older vehicles with newer “green” ones to ensure the City meets new emissions criteria, and be directed to introduce "life cycle costing" in the vehicle and equipment procurement process, whereby staff will take into consideration the total life cycle costs of ownership (i.e. - depreciation, maintenance, fuel, etc) of a vehicle in determining which vehicle to purchase.

 

 

CONSULTATION

 

Public Works and Services (PWS)

 

Municipal Fleet Services

 

The direction of this motion is consistent with current practice to acquire Green fleet when supported by a business case based on life-cycle costs.  As fleet management responsibilities are now split between PTE (transit) and PWS (municipal) the next version of the Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy (FERS) will need to be split into two separate reports to cover the respective areas of responsibility.  The intent is for PWS to bring forward a Municipal Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy in Q1 2009 and subsequently a Green Fleet Plan for the municipal fleet.  A consultant will need to be retained to build the Municipal Green Fleet Plan at an estimated cost of $100,000.

 

Transit Services

 

The Transit portion of the FERS update can be completed by Q1 2009 if not updated by an independent 3rd party as scheduled, but rather by staff as an update to FERS 2004 initiatives (bio-diesel, hybrid technology, etc).  The Transit FERS would be reported to Transit Committee. Transit Services will also report on progress through its annual transit fleet acquisition plan.

 

Planning, Transit and the Environment (PTE)

 

Economic and Environmental Sustainability Branch

 

A policy to consider life cycle costs in all vehicle purchases would be consistent with the draft Green Procurement Policy to be brought to Council this fall.  Life cycle costs should also include the costs of disposal.

 

In general, measures to reduce fuel consumption will also reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions, thus contributing to achievement of City objectives re air quality and mitigating climate change by reducing GHG emissions.

 

 

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

Financial Services Unit

 

The Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy will be updated by Q1 2009 and will include an analysis of financial implications associated with the adoption of this strategy.  Until this new strategy is adopted, staff will continue the current practice of providing a business case for the purchase of future green vehicles.  The estimated cost of $100,000 required for a consultant to build the Municipal Green Fleet Plan will be included with the 2009 draft operating budget submission. 

 

Supply Management Division

 

The purchase of "green vehicles" may potentially be more costly due to the emerging technologies and the current reality of supply and demand.  The result may be an impact on departmental budgets for vehicle acquisition.

 

The recommendation appears rather restrictive in that with the diversity within the City Fleet, "green vehicles" may not always be on the market, and it would be preferable to include:  "where such products are available within required delivery dates and cost effective" following the phrase “as a standard practice” in Recommendation 2.

 

Although life cycle costing may in fact be cost effective over the longer term, experience within purchasing is that the existing practice of purchasing from the "lowest responsive bidder" is always less costly initially, than the proposed process to use evaluated criteria in the award process.

 

 

DISPOSITION

 

City staff to respond to the direction of Committee and Council.



            FLEET EMISSION REDUCTION STRATEGY - MOTION

STRATÉGIE DE RÉDUCTION DES ÉMISSIONS DU PARC AUTOMOBILE – MOTION

ACS2008-CCS-TRC-0017                                 CITY WIDE / À L'ÉCHELLE DE LA VILLE

 

Councillor Bloess explained that the purpose of this Motion is to build on what the City already does and to ensure it has the right fleet for the job, what is the best value for money, less emissions, less fuel costs, et cetera.  He expressed his appreciation to Councillor Qadri who helped to prepare this Motion.

 

Councillor Leadman made note of the fact that there have been studies and consultants’ reports and suggested the study being requested will emulate the Toronto Green Fleet Plan and she questioned the value of spending money to copy work already done elsewhere.  She also believed the City had in-house resources that could respond to this request.

 

By way of background, Ken Wetzel, Director of Fleet Services explained that the Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy (FERS) will be coming back to the Committee in early 2009.  It will lay out a high-level strategy and will require a change in focus more on the municipal fleet (the 2004 Strategy focused more on transit).  With regards to the Toronto report, he mentioned that it lays out many activities, sets targets and provides funding to buy green vehicles, and if it is the desire of this Committee to go into that level of detail, he advised that that is new work to be undertaken and would involve having to cover a lot of details when it gets to the point of laying out specific plans.  Therefore, staff would not anticipate that to be a simple report and would need to include sufficient detail that the Committee could support.

 

Councillor Leadman understood some of the sensivity surrounding some of the elements but she did not believe those could ever be avoided, given lobby groups and advocates who will try to sway councillors.  She recognized that there has been an onging effort to look at options to green the fleet, but she believed that much of the work staff would be doing will be based on the plan from Toronto.  She could not see the value of spending this money to move forward with this and how it would benefit the City substantially when there is already significant background and another report that has all the details in terms of what options can be provided.  She wondered why staff could not instead look at that report and filter it down to Ottawa’s needs.

 

Mr. Wetzel explained that staff could build on the Toronto and other reports, but what he could not clearly state is exactly what kind of work load that would generate for staff and what the costs may be to do that.  He thought that as staff work through this, maybe tying it somewhat to the FERS, there may be an opportunity to better refine what they see in the Green Fleet Plan and would also allow them to refine what kind of cost estimates would result.  He suggested that perhaps when the FERS is brought back, staff could also bring back a plan or more detail about the Green Fleet Plan to show what the next step might be if the Strategy is approved.

 

The councillor inquired how that ties into the 2004 FERS, noting the money spent for a 2008 study, but which has not been tendered yet.  She made note of the fact that Council already approved funding for studies as part of the 2004 FERS, but which have not yet been done and here is another request for yet another study at an estimated cost of $100,000.  Mr. Wetzel explained that the estimate would be brought forward in the 2009 budget documents and is not a request for funding at this point; it is an estimate, saying with our understanding of a desire to improve upon what the City currently has and looking towards next year, this is the first estimate at it.  The councillor had reservations of moving forward when there are other outstanding issues and while there is a correlation, the connection between the two is not clear.

 

Councillor Leadman proposed the following:

 

WHEREAS The City must achieve $100M in efficiencies in addition to significant budgetary pressures for 2009 and into the future;

 

AND WHEREAS There are already significant internal resources able to complete these reports;

 

AND WHEREAS The internal review, update and creation of the “Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy” and the “Municipal Green Fleet Plan”/Review of the Toronto Green Fleet Plan would create a savings of $350,000;

 

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT City staff be directed to:

·        Undertake the update of the “Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy” internally without any additional resources that incorporates significant updates already undertaken.

·        Provide an internal review of the Toronto Green Fleet Plan without any additional resources and report back to Committee and Council on applicability.

 

THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the $250,000 for the “Fleet Emissions Reduction Strategy” be directed to provide one-time reduction for the 2009 budget and the pressure for the “Municipal Green Fleet Plan” be removed.

 

Councillor Cullen recognized that doing this work would require funds and if adopted, what would be bumped out?  Mr. Wetzel was unable to answer that, but explained that the plan has been to undertake the FERS through a consultant and the funding is in the 2008 budget to do that, but work has not been contracted at this point.  Recognizing that $100,000 is required for the FERS, the councillor suggested that if funds have been allocated to different activities, if money gets removed from one to finance another then something does not get done.  He recognized that the $250,000 was part of the 2008 budget and Council has clearly indicated it wants to pursue this strategy.  With regards to the funds required for Councillor Leadman’s Motion, staff have identified that they would report back on the cost of this through Q1 2009 which would be a budget pressure.  He therefore suggested that if adopted, the proper debate for that would be during budget.  He saw this as a reconsideration of a budget item already dealt with for the 2008 budget.  Therefore, he could not support Councillor Leadman’s Motion.

 

Richard Hewitt, Deputy City Manager, Public Works and Services interjected that the $250,000 that the Fleet Services Branch currently has is 2008 operating dollars and the suggestion here is that this be applied to the 2008 budget, but in fact, that funding, if not utilized would in fact be wrapped with the year-end 2008 deficit.  He therefore did not know if those funds could be moved into 2009.  He suggested that if there concern on the part of Committee with regards to the expenditures, he believed the Branch is looking to move forward with this commitment in order to update the FERS.  He suggested not approving $100,000 request for additional funding, but let staff move forward and determine how far they can get with this and see if there is a need.  He further acknowledged that there are studies that have already been done, e.g., Toronto’s Green Fleet Program, but the FERS is much more comprehensive overall than just that aspect.

 

Given that Council has already approved $250,000 for the FERS (for which the contract has not been tendered), and given the significant changes to the fleet, Councillor Leadman questioned whether the value of this contract would be as significant and is there an opportunity that this will be revisited and if full funding is not necessarily needed because of the reduction in the fleet size, that that could be transferred over to what is being put forward today.  Mr. Hewitt explained that the complexity of the fleet has not changed; the bulk of the transit fleet is essentially one type of vehicle with variants and that issue was looked at not long ago when Council decided to purchase diesel-electric hybrid buses.  He was not sure if there was a lot more to review and suggested that transit might be able to do the review within its existing resources, but it is on the municipal fleet side where there have been a lot of changes.

 

Councillor Leadman indicated she would withdraw her Motion and would work with the Deputy City Manager between now and the time this rises to Council to address her concerns.

 

Councillor Bloess referred to a recent e-mail received from the FCM which spoke about sustainable transportation projects within cities which calls for applications for financial assistance for municipal studies and project related to vehicle acquisition and retrofits, among others.  He indicated he would put forward a Motion seeking funding for this initiative.

 

Chair McRae referred to the suggested revisions to the Motion as indicated in the staff comment in the report as follows:  “That the words:  where such products are available within required delivery dates and cost effective” be added to the first bullet of Recommendation 2.  Councillor Bloess indicated his acceptance of this amendment.

 

When asked to clarify what he was seeking to accomplish with this Motion, Councillor Bloess explained that the City has been going forward in incremental steps on this and yet other municipalities have taken a more comprehensive approach to their fleet.  He went on to state that what is needed is a strategy that looks at the whole fleet and lays out what the right vehicles are to use.

 

Councillor Leadman was concerned that there is no consistency or plan whether it is looking at fleet emissions or vehicle emissions.  She believed that the department sets the criteria for the vehicle they want, so it is not Fleet making that determination.  She believed there was a conflict between how the City manages these two issues, i.e., it wants to have a green fleet, but at the same time recommends the arbitrary acquisition of vehicles.  She maintained there has to be a change in the way staff bring forward recommendations because Council does not have all the necessary information regarding vehicle purchases and this policy.  She was trying to understand what the correlation was between vehicle purchases and this plan.

 

Mr. Hewitt explained that the department is looking very aggressively to move forward on a number of initiatives being referred to.  He wanted to allay the concerns raised about the perceived “ad hoc” procurement of vehicles; the department does not specify the type of vehicle it requires; instead, staff advise what their requirements are and Fleet Services determines the vehicle best suited to that job.  With respect to the 2009 Growth Vehicle Requests (Item 2 on today’s agenda) and the discussion on procurement of vehicles, he explained that they are responding to Council directives.  He added that staff will be bringing forward a report shortly regarding fleet replacement, which is a comprehensive review of all the vehicles being replaced.  They are also moving forward on greening initiatives, but at the same time there are complications and they have to be careful.  They are seeing linkages i.e. life cycle, costs, et cetera, remarking that there is no sense buying battery-operated vehicles if the life cycle costs do not make sense.  He acknowledged that manufacturers are slowly responding to the needs of today as well.

 

Moved by R. Bloess

 

That staff seek funding from the FCM Green Municipal Fund to offset the cost developing the Green Fleet Policy/Strategy.

 

                                                                                                CARRIED

 

That the Transportation Committee recommend that Council approve the following:

 

1.         That staff be directed to update the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy (FERS) by Q1 2009 and report back to Committee and Council on the new Green Fleet Policy within 6 months of the adoption of the Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy; and

 

2.         That the new green vehicle policy include, but not be limited to, the following;

·        Adjusting the City’s procurement policy to favour the purchase of green vehicles as a standard practice, where such products are available within required delivery dates and cost effective while providing the flexibility to adopt promising new technologies and practices over time; and

·        Continuing the current practice of providing a business case for the purchase of future green vehicles; and

 

3.                  That until the new Fleet Emission Reduction Strategy is adopted, staff continues to reduce fleet emissions by replacing older vehicles with newer “green” ones to ensure the City meets new emissions criteria, and be directed to introduce "life cycle costing" in the vehicle and equipment procurement process, whereby staff will take into consideration the total life cycle costs of ownership (i.e. - depreciation, maintenance, fuel, etc) of a vehicle in determining which vehicle to purchase.

 

4.         That staff seek funding from the FCM Green Municipal Fund to offset the cost developing the Green Fleet Policy/Strategy.

 

                                                                                                            CARRIED, as amended