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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Sustainability initiatives: Fleet operations and renewable energy
0:07:23
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107 sec
Commissioner Molina outlines DCAS's significant progress in sustainability initiatives, focusing on fleet operations and renewable energy projects. He highlights the transition to renewable diesel for heavy-duty vehicles and ferries, as well as the expansion of solar energy installations on public buildings.
- Full transition of heavy-duty fleet and ferries to renewable diesel, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 62 million metric tons annually
- Installation of the city's largest collection of solar arrays on over 100 public school buildings, nearly tripling municipal solar capacity since the pandemic
- Plans for further expansion of renewable diesel use in other city vessel programs and continued growth in electric vehicle adoption
- Progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions in city government operations by 50% by 2030, with a 26% reduction already achieved since fiscal year 2006
Louis Molina
0:07:23
With that objective in mind, before looking forward, I'd like to start by briefly looking a bit back and provide a few updates about the critical work we've accomplished at DCAS since our agency testified before your committee last year, Making sure our streets and buildings are among the greenest in the nation has been at the forefront of much of our work, and over the past year, we've made great strides to improve our city's fleet operations.
0:07:47
In October of twenty twenty four, we announced that the city's entire heavy duty fleet, one of the largest in the country, has fully transitioned to using renewable diesel before the end of the year.
0:07:57
We further announced that our city's ferries will now run on renewable diesel as well.
0:08:01
This makes a significant advancement for our city's environmental footprint, eliminating approximately a 62,000,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually, encompassing the transition to renewable diesel, our onboarding of electric vehicles and hybrid prioritization from sanitation trucks to emergency response vehicles and everything in between, the city's fleet is now greener than at any time in the past one hundred years.
0:08:27
But it's not just our streets becoming greener, so too is our infrastructure.
0:08:32
This past December, we celebrated the completion of New York City's largest collection of solar arrays, a groundbreaking project that underscored our long term commitment to clean energy.
0:08:42
Over 100 public school buildings have been equipped with solar arrays, and our latest portfolio added nearly 17 megawatts of solar energy to the city's power portfolio.
0:08:52
With this latest installation, we have nearly tripled the municipal solar capacity since the pandemic.
0:08:58
What's more, over half of these projects, 55% of them, are in disadvantaged communities, building greener energy equity in our neighborhoods and ensuring that the benefits of clean energy reach those who need it most.