Monday, June 2, 2025, 9:30 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee
The Climate, Water, Environment, and Parks Committee met on June 2, 2025, chaired by Council Member Alter with Council Members Siegel, Duchen, and Ellis (vice chair, remote) present. The committee received briefings on city facility EV charging infrastructure and fleet electrification projections, the Parks and Recreation Department's partnership with Austin Parks Foundation, parks funding study updates, and Austin Resource Recovery's recycling, diversion, and solar panel recycling programs. No votes were taken on policy items; the minutes were approved and members asked substantive questions about EV fleet projections, park maintenance funding gaps, recycling participation rates, and solar panel recycling costs. The meeting was adjourned.
0:05 Morning everybody. I am going to call our meeting to order.
0:13 I am Council Member Ryan Alter the chair of the climate water environment and parks committee.
0:18 We are at City Hall at 9 31.
0:22 Joined here by council members uchin and Siegel.
0:25 I know Council Member Ellis is gonna be joining us remotely.
0:29 And with that, I think, uh, we have no speakers, so we're just going to kick it off
0:36 with, uh, an approval of the minutes item number one.
0:39 So is there a, a motion to approve the minutes?
0:42 Uh, councillor Siegel moves second by councillor uchin.
0:45 Uh, no objections. That item is approved.
0:50 We're just gonna dive right into item number two.
0:52 This is a briefing on city facility electric vehicle charging infrastructure and ev fleet projections.
0:59 And I will invite up zach balmer, the director of the office of climate action and resilience, as
1:06 well as rick harland from fleet mobility services.
1:09 I'm there. Council Member vice chair Ellis has joined us.
1:12 Good morning. Hi,
1:19 good morning council committee.
1:20 Uh, I'm zach baumer, uh, director of the office of climate action resilience and to hear.
1:26 And here today we are here to give you an update on city fleet electrification.
1:32 Um, over the past, this, this group of folks here from fleet and Austin energy parks, multiple departments
1:38 in my department, um, obviously have been coordinating, working together for years and years on this topic.
1:45 Um, but in the last couple months we got together to put together this briefing and up with
1:50 me speaking today. Um, and these are some of my favorite people to collaborate and work with, uh,
1:55 across the city organization are rick harland with fleet mobility services and cameron friedberg with Austin energy and
2:03 sarah talkington with parks and rec, rec parks and recreation.
2:07 Uh, so I'm gonna kick off the presentation and then pass it to them and they're gonna give
2:11 their, uh, section to this presentation.
2:19 Thanks. Okay. So, um, so some of the, um, the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants
2:34 that, that cause ozone in our air quality problems come from on-road vehicles.
2:39 So, uh, the largest sector of, of greenhouse gas emissions is on-road transportation.
2:44 Uh, the largest sector of, um, nox and vocs, which causes ozone is also some form on-road transportation.
2:52 So those two sectors are really essential, um, to manage and look at new technologies and implement solutions,
3:00 um, to reduce those pollutants to make a big difference for climate change and air pollution in our
3:05 region. Uh, our goal for, um, for electric vehicles from the climate equity plan is to get to
3:13 electrification of 40% of viable fleet vehicle miles traveled by 2030.
3:19 That supports our overarching climate target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
3:25 Uh, the key thing with fleet electrification is that we really need to focus on the use case,
3:30 the technology infrastructure readiness, um, to implement those solutions that will be successful.
3:36 Um, so you're gonna hear from, um, a lot more from fleet that we're really, really focusing on
3:41 viability thre thresholds to inform our investments to make sure that we are investing in the right vehicles
3:47 that save us money, that maximize pollutant reductions, um, and really maximize benefits for the city of Austin.
3:55 So, uh, in terms of battery electric vehicles and how much progress we've made, we have 373 battery
4:02 electric vehicles currently in the fleet.
4:04 Uh, last year they drove 1.8 million electric vehicle miles, um, over the course of that year.
4:10 So that is significant progress.
4:12 When you just think about 373 vehicles, that's a lot of vehicles.
4:16 Um, over the course of the next two, four years, by, by 2030 we will be to over
4:22 700 battery electric vehicles in the fleet.
4:25 We're prioritizing high usage units, departmental readiness, and really trying to right find that right fit where we
4:32 maximize emission reductions and maximize cost savings.
4:35 'Cause as you're gonna hear, there's a right way to do this and there's a way that costs
4:39 the city more money.
4:40 Um, we also have edf fellow this summer who starts in a couple weeks here, who's gonna partner
4:46 with our office fleet and a rr to look at, uh, electrification in the right way to elect
4:51 future electrify and plan for the electrification of the a rr fleet.
4:56 Um, and you're gonna hear about pilot programs with heavy duty and public safety vehicles across the organization.
5:02 So after you get those electric vehicles in the door, you have to have charging infrastructure.
5:06 'Cause if you don't have the infrastructure and it's not in the right place, um, electric vehicles don't
5:10 work. So we currently have 282 dedicated fleet charging ports on city facilities.
5:16 Um, that's by the end of this year.
5:18 And then we'll be to almost 500 ports at city facilities by 2030.
5:23 Um, we also have a major infrastructure modeling project underway that you're gonna hear about from Austin energy,
5:29 um, to inform our site selection, charging access grid alignment, to really make sure that as we scale
5:35 this to hundreds and then thousands of vehicles, that we do it in the right way.
5:38 That is, again, cost effective and maximizes emission reductions.
5:43 Um, and then finally, um, this isn't really, uh, a landscape.
5:48 A landscape equipment is not really, um, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is, um,
5:55 an sort of outsized emitter of, um, of air pollutants and really, um, has an outsized impact on
6:02 air pollution in our community.
6:03 So we know this has been an important, um, topic for City Council.
6:08 So part is gonna give, uh, an update on a study that's underway in collaboration with my office
6:13 to assess cost and usability and market readiness of implementation of electric landscaping equipment.
6:19 Um, and then talk about, uh, a pilot that we're gonna run with part in the coming years.
6:23 And that really should support our broader transition to get away from, um, small engines in two strokes,
6:29 which sort of have this outsize, uh, emissions impact.
6:32 So, uh, that's the, the executive summary.
6:35 We are gonna have three sections to this presentation.
6:38 Fleet is gonna talk through fleet vehicle electrification.
6:42 Uh, then cameron is gonna come up and talk about charging infrastructure.
6:45 And then finally, landscaping equipment.
6:48 Rick,
6:59 thank you zach, I appreciate that.
7:02 Uh, good morning council members.
7:03 My name is rick harlan.
7:04 I'm assistant director at fleet mobility services.
7:07 Um, fleet electrification is one of the most actionable and measurable ways that we can, uh, contribute to
7:14 the climate equity plan.
7:16 Every electric vehicle that we deploy reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves local air quality, supports healthier communities, especially
7:24 in frontline neighborhoods that are most impacted by pollution.
7:28 By aligning our fleet strategy with the city's climate equity goals, we're building a transportation system that's cleaner,
7:35 more resilient, and more just as zach mentioned earlier, the fleet traveled 43.8 million miles in 2024, the battery
7:44 electric vehicle fleet traveled 1.8 million miles.
7:47 That's 10% of the climate equity plan goal today, which is 18 million miles.
7:58 So I'm here to share with you how we stand and how far we've come with the transition
8:02 of the largest, one of the largest municipal fleets in texas towards electrification.
8:07 Fleet electrification isn't just a goal, it's something that we're actively building every day with real deployment, real
8:13 data, and real infrastructure.
8:16 What I'd like to do today is provide a quick look at what our fleet actually is, because
8:19 understanding that is essential to identifying the opportunities before us.
8:26 So what is the fleet that we're trying to electrify today?
8:30 The city of Austin operates one of the most diverse mission critical fleets in texas, supporting everything from
8:36 police, patrol, fire response, refuse collection, and power line repair, something that we all appreciate much last week
8:45 to make this opportunity, uh, to make this complexity more digestible, we've broken the fleet down into core
8:52 vehicle categories so that you can clearly see where electrification is viable today.
8:57 Electrifying the fleet isn't about swapping sedans, it's about aligning technology cycles, service requirements, and community needs.
9:06 Understanding that complexity is the key to setting realistic, impactful goals for fleet electrification.
9:19 So what's viable today?
9:20 You could see on this graph here on this pie chart that only 29% of our fleet has
9:25 a viable bev option today.
9:28 And that's exactly where we've focused our effort.
9:31 We've already begun deploying these units, building, charging infrastructure, aligning with the city goals and why we'd love
9:36 to electrify everything tomorrow.
9:38 Reality is that some equipment categories simply don't have a viable bev option yet we're tracking that, we're
9:45 testing it, we're ready to move when the market catches up with us.
9:50 So what I'm showing you today is not a barrier, it's a roadmap.
9:53 It's how we turn vision into sustained progress, not just ambition.
9:59 We're laser focused on that 29% and that's where real progress is happening.
10:04 We're testing the rest, we're tracking the market daily, and we'll move when technology catches up with us.
10:13 So here's how we stack up.
10:15 Austin isn't chasing the ev market.
10:17 We're leading it where it makes operational sense.
10:19 In 20 24, 8 0.2% of our ve new vehicle purchases were battery electric vehicles compared to the market national
10:26 market at 7.9. Since 2017, we've averaged a 10% bev adoption.
10:33 That's nearly double the national average.
10:35 We're not waiting. We're building the infrastructure, deploying the vehicles, and executing a long-term strategy that works.
10:43 And this isn't just a pilot, it's a citywide shift.
10:46 Over 86% of our departments are actively participating in this transition, not just early adopters.
10:57 So this is what's on the ground today, not a plan, not a projection.
10:59 We have, as zach mentioned, 373 battery electric vehicles in service.
11:04 And we'll have right at 400 by the end of the year that's already delivered 2.5 million in lifetime
11:10 savings in real fuel and real maintenance savings across the departments.
11:15 On the infrastructure side, we will have 282 charging ports installed by the end of the year with
11:21 more under construction. We're averaging 1.3 vehicles per level two charging port, which is a healthy and balanced
11:29 ratio. But we know level two isn't the whole story.
11:33 To normalize refueling, the refueling experience for higher demand vehicles, we're actively overlaying dc fast charge where it
11:40 makes sense operationally.
11:47 So here's something that we're very excited about.
11:50 As we transition towards a more electrified and sustainable fleet, were taking a disciplined data-driven approach, scaling through
11:58 targeted pilot programs. Each pilot was selected not because of the technology that exists, but because operational conditions
12:05 are right. And because we can measure real outcomes that inform future investments.
12:11 In partnership with a pd, we're introducing a battery electric police pursuit rated vehicle to frontline law enforcement
12:18 operations. These vehicles account for 18 million miles by themselves annually or 40% of the total vehicle miles for
12:25 the fleet, and have the highest idle time in the entire fleet.
12:29 The units are already on the ground and have spent time at the training academy and a formal
12:33 launch. Communication to council is forthcoming.
12:38 We're also piloting electric refuse trucks, our hardest working highest cost per mile segment of our entire fleet.
12:46 These units provide a perfect test case for evaluating electric vehicle performance under heavy duty daily cycles.
12:54 These pilots allow us to assess real world duty cycles, evaluate reliability, charging logistics and maintenance requirements before
13:02 making large scale capital investments.
13:06 Our strategy is simple.
13:07 Prove it first, scale it second.
13:11 This staged approach reduces risk, ensures taxpayers dollars are used wisely and builds internal readiness for long-term transformation.
13:20 The insights we're gaining now are already shaping our 2026 to 2030 procurement projections and helping us align
13:29 bev adoption with infrastructure build out and funding cycles.
13:37 So what's next? We've made significant progress electrifying our fleet where market ready options exist.