All charged up and ready to grow

With 76 electric vehicle charging ports already on campus and more planned for the coming year, UMass Chan Medical School earned an Electric Vehicle Transition Leadership award from AltWheels, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable transportation.

The award was announced in October at the 20th annual AltWheels Fleet Day, the largest meeting of corporate and municipal vehicle fleet managers on the East Coast. Jay Leno spoke to the fleet managers by video.

“We are thrilled to receive this award and we also know we have a lot more work to do to expand sustainable transportation options for our community,” said Suzanne Wood, associate director of sustainability and campus services at UMass Chan, said.

Of the 76 EV charging ports now on campus, 40 are designated for employees and students, while 36 (in South Road garage) are allocated for patients and visitors.

Read EV charging guidelines here.

Since the first group of EV chargers was installed on campus in 2014, EV drivers have plugged in for more than 41,000 charging sessions. Collectively, EV trips to campus have avoided 473,651 kg of greenhouse gas emissions, had they been done by gas or diesel powered vehicles. That savings has a beneficial air quality equivalent of 12,145 trees grown for 10 years.

“This is thanks to the high utilization of our charging infrastructure,” Wood noted.

Watch Jay Leno's welcome message for
attendees at the AltWheels Fleet Day.