Urban Planning Students Develop Green Recommendations For UW-Madison Fleet

Madison WI

25 November, 2021

7:49 PM

Description

Press release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: November 16, 2021 Students in Urban and Regional Planning 551 didn't have to travel far last spring to put their knowledge of sustainable transportation to work. With guidance from the Office of Sustainability and Transportation Services, eighteen undergraduate and graduate students in Professor Carey McAndrews's "Climate Action Planning: Sustainable Transportation" course developed a report with recommendations to make UW–Madison's fleet greener. Using data from Transportation Services, the class created an inventory of the vehicles owned by UW–Madison. Students then estimated the fleet's baseline greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions using the Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation (AFLEET) Tool, created by the Argonne National Laboratory. Staff across campus provided valuable input. Josh Arnold and Alex Frank from the Office of Sustainability shared feedback with the class throughout the semester. Director of Transportation Operations Gabe Mendez introduced the fleet philosophy at the start of the class and described what strategies the division was and was not considering. The students presented multiple recommendations for a greener fleet—including alternative fuels, electrifying the fleet, and reducing trips, all of which were already on the radar, Mendez said. This press release was produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The views expressed here are the author's own.