VT: CCTA Embraces Green Initiatives to Advance Mission

The Chittenden County Transportation Authority (CCTA) strives to incorporate green practices into its daily operations as it helps residents, employees, and visitors in its service area make sustainable transportation choices.

The mission of CCTA is to operate safe, convenient, accessible, innovative and sustainable public transportation services in the Chittenden County region that reduce congestion and pollution, encourage transit oriented development and enhance the quality of life for all.

CCTA actively works to fulfill this mission through a variety of ongoing green initiatives, including:

• Solar Lighted Passenger Shelters - Following passenger requests to install lights at bus shelters, CCTA began installing solar lighting at new and existing shelters. The initial capital cost of $3,000 is half the cost of connecting to the electric grid. The only operating costs are replacing batteries every few years. Solar lighting is now available at half of CCTA’s 90 bus shelters. CCTA plans to upfit another 12 shelters with solar lights in 2014.
• Low VOC Waterborne Paint - VOC’s are chemical compounds commonly used in paint coatings and cleaning products. When released into the atmosphere, they help contribute to ozone depletion and smog. By using low VOC paints to paint its buses, CCTA reduced basecoat sourced VOC emissions by 80percent.
• Efficient Lighting Upgrade - CCTA cut electricity usage by over 25 percent in the first two months following a conversion to modern lighting systems at its Burlington administrative and maintenance facility. CCTA will make additional upgrades by installing high-efficiency exterior lighting in 2014.
• Waste Oil Burner - CCTA uses waste oil burners that use discarded oil from CCTA operations to heat the bus garage, reducing energy costs and reusing the product.
• Tire Changes – CCTA now uses a tire tread designed to produce better fuel mileage and the CCTA Maintenance Department checks the tire pressure on every bus daily. The change of tire tread and active tire pressure monitoring produced an annual savings of about $25,000 and increased the miles per gallon by 0.14 miles per gallon per bus. In 2013, CCTA received a green initiative award from the NorthEast Passenger Transportation Association for its successful tire tread and tire monitoring procedures.
• Mini Hybrids - CCTA has installed mini-hybrid systems on 12 buses, which convert engine mechanical energy to electrical energy for the engine cooling system. The system uses small cooling fans rather than a single large fan and is variable based on cooling need. These systems have increased fuel efficiency by 5-10 percent depending on bus size. CCTA has plans to install these systems on an additional nine buses in 2014.