FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

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Atlanta,GA, January 2020:
TheCalifornia Air Resources Board (CARB) has awarded the Stockton Unified SchoolDistrict (SUSD) a California Climate Investments grant to fund SUSD's zero-emission transition plan. The Center for Transportation and theEnvironment (CTE) helped SUSD assemble the team, write the proposal, and is providing technical, outreach, and project management support to assist in implementing this award.

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The $4.8-million-dollar California Climate Investments grant under CARB's new two-year Clean Mobility in Schools Pilot Project will allow SUSD to pursue its goal of becoming California's first zero-emission school district under its plan "Getting Stockton Schools to Zero Emissions: Clean Air for our Community". The award will enable CTE and SUSD to develop a master plan for the entire school district while deploying pilot vehicles at a small scale for testing. The results of these small-scale deployments will inform future adjustments to the district's Master Plan. The goal is to use the funding in phases to quickly implement the most significant changes first while creating a master plan to ultimately achieve a fully zero-emission school district in the most effective way possible. The project will provide significant positive community health impacts and dramatically reduce the use of fossil fuels while providing opportunities to communicate these results to the community and the district's students.

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The project will begin with the deployment of 6 battery-electric school buses and supporting charging infrastructure. To control the vehicle charging, SUSD will implement advanced, grid-aware charge management software to decrease electricity costs and peak utility demands. SUSD will also acquire zero-emission commercial mowers, grounds maintenance equipment, and fleet maintenance vehicles. CTE will track emissions reductions according to thegrant requirements and will publish lessons learned to provide a roadmap for other school districts to follow.

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"CTE will leverage the knowledge we have gained assisting transit agencies across the U.S. with their zero-emission transitions to support SUSD as they deploy their first zero-emission school buses. We are excited to work with SUSD on implementing this important project to accelerate a zero-emission transition."

- Erik Bigelow, Senior Engineering Consultant

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The school buses will operate almost exclusively in Disadvantaged Communities as identified through CalEnviroScreen. SUSD will directly improve local air quality by removing older, polluting diesel buses from operation, therefore eliminating their associated GHG emissions. The electric school buses will also provide an opportunity for students to interact directly with a technology that will be instrumental in moving SUSD towards zero-emission operations. SUSD will leverage electric school buses and other zero-emission technologies into peer-led educational programs and materials for students, faculty, staff, and community members.

Other major partners in the project include Schneider Electric, Sage Energy Consulting, and The Mobility House. This publication and project were supported by the "California Climate Investments" (CCI) program.

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ABOUT CTE

The Center for Transportation and the Environment is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to improve the health of our climate and communities by bringing people together to develop and commercialize clean, efficient, and sustainable transportation technologies. CTE has worked on over 200 projects and leveraged more than $570 million in local, state, federal, and private funding to move cutting edge technologies into the global energy and transportation marketplace. Learn more at www.cte.tv and follow us on Twitter @go_CTE

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Lauren Justice/ CTE Development Director
[email protected]
404-245-8589