by Shawn O’Sullivan
Live Green was founded in 2010 by Daphne Dixon and Scott Weiker “to address conservation, environmental, and sustainability issues by creating structures and programs that merge global issues with local, scalable, measurable, and meaningful initiatives and projects.”
Their most recent initiative is the EV Readiness Toolkit a series of steps to help localities adopt electric vehicles. Dixon was inspired by Connecticut’s signing on to the Memorandum of Understandings(MOU), the first of which was signed in 2013, along with 7 other states, agreeing to reach a goal of 125,00 electric vehicles on the road by 2025. In 2015 CT also signed the International Zev Alliance committing to all passenger vehicles sold by 2050 be Electric Vehicles. This year CT and 14 states and DC signed another MOU committing to medium & heavy duty trucks and buses being 30% electric by 2030. “People should be really proud of CT. ” says Dixon.
Mechanics know that with the right tool you can fix anything. With the tools acquired from Live Green’s 12 week program of webinars, education and actions, she hopes to create teams from each town that will be equipped to effectively enable their municipality in adopting electric vehicles. The modules cover subjects like charging infrastructure, planning and zoning, and public transit, among others.
According to the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) transportation accounts for almost 70% of air pollution and 38% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Connecticut.
It has never been easier to become active, and Dixon believes everybody is a leader. “Like a flock of birds or a school of fish, everybody is headed in the same direction.” She adds, “You know, geese flying in formation fly 67% faster than one flying alone.”
Dixon felt that what was missing was actual support for towns already beleaguered with so many issues. “I think its up to organizations like Live Green to step in and help with that last part- the implementation. The state agencies like DEEP do the heavy lifting. They do the policies. They do the incentive programs, and they do the gigantic work of framing all of these initiatives. We want to build a cohort, so that at the end of the year we have a blueprint and in 2021 we have goals for each area, because transportation is huge. We want to engage our mayors and first selectmen, so they understand how to get there.”
The total number of electric vehicles registered in Connecticut as of July is 12,624. Clearly it’s time to accelerate.
“I think it’s doable,” Dixon says with conviction. “All of us have to do it.”
So start now. Sign up for GWE’s Webinar on ” Transitioning Your Municipal Fleet to Electric” on 10/01 here. It will count for the third module of the EV Readiness Toolkit, and get you on the road to action.
Live Green supports the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.