Dear colleague,

We are pleased to send you the fifth issue of the Clean Fleets newsletter. Please feel free to share this newsletter with interested colleagues.

Kind regards,

Your Clean Fleets team

1. Upcoming Clean Fleets Workshops: London, Zagreb & Rotterdam
2. LCC tool and Clean Fleets Guide reviewed
3. Filming Training Modules & Introducing New Faces
4. Clean Fleets workshops round-up: Zagreb & Valladolid
5. Up for discussion: Low environmental impact, second hand buses - to buy or not to buy?

   Upcoming Clean fleets Workshops: London, Zagreb, Rotterdam

Over the coming months, three European cities are set to host a Clean Fleets national workshop. These are designed to provide local authorities with practical insight into implementing the Clean Fleets Directive and to exchange and learn from each others’ experiences.

The workshops, which are taking place in London (UK), Zagreb (Croatia) and Rotterdam (Netherlands) will cover a number of themes, including:

• energy efficient and zero emissions fuels
• clean vehicle technologies
• charging infrastructure
• implementing life cycle analysis in tender evaluations

All three workshops are open to public authorities and fleet operators in Europe, and other relevant stakeholders. Register now!

   LCC tool and Clean Fleets Guide Reviewed

The finalised LCC tool and Clean Fleets guide have been given the thumbs up by recent articles in Fleet Manager and Local Government Executive magazines.

The Clean Fleets Guide presents in-depth information for public authorities and public transport operators tasked with purchasing vehicle fleets in accordance with EU legislation. Backed-up by real life examples from European public authorities, the guide shows how environmental criteria can be introduced at various stages of the procurement process.

The Life-cycle Costing Tool empowers procurers to measure the cost of their fleet over its full life span, granting an insight into environmental impacts as well as financial costs.

Both tools are available on the Clean Fleets website to download for free.

Clean Fleets Helpdesk
In addition to these resources, support and advice is still being offered to local authorities via the Clean Fleets helpdesk. For free assistance with purchasing and leasing clean and energy-efficient public vehicles, email

 FILMING TrainING MODULES & introducing new faces

A series of videos covering all modules of the Clean Fleets training programme are in the process of being filmed, and will be released as short-bite size videos for those of you who couldn't make our workshops!

These e-learning modules are designed to introduce professional trainers to the Clean Fleets training package, so that they in turn can train procurers in their own countries on the purchase of energy-efficient and clean vehicles.

The videos will cover all aspects of clean vehicle procurement and include star turns from members of the Clean Fleets coordination team.

New faces: meet our trainers

We are delighted to welcome on board four trainers from across Europe, who, after successfully completing our Clean Fleets 'Train the Trainers' programme, have agreed to share their expertise and knowledge. Municipalities, authorities and other purchasers interested in the receiving the training programme can contact them direct.

To find out more about, and to contact, Grigore, Jose, Quirijn and Cecilia, visit the Clean Fleets website.

 Clean fleets workshops Round-up: Zagreb & Valladolid

Presentations and resources are available to download from two recent workshops in Zagreb (Croatia) and Valladolid (Spain).

The Zagreb workshop covered topics including sustainable procurement of vehicles, the CVD in practice and life cycle costing calculations.

The workshop in Valladolid formed part of the Alternative Fuel-type & Vehicle Congress, which showcased current and state-of-the-art alternatives to standard combustion engines.

For live tweets from Clean Fleets workshops and the latest clean vehicle news, check out #cleanfleets.

 In the news & up for discussion: Low environmental impact, second hand buses - to buy or not to buy?

The question of how to reduce emissions from our cities' bus fleets - on a stringent budget - is a tricky one.

Instead of buying expensive new buses with the latest ‘clean’ technologies, many public authorities are choosing to retrofit existing fleets to reduce emissions or even purchase and retrofit buses from other cities.

However, there are worries that this may be a false economy, with short term savings significantly outweighed by the longer term impacts of such an approach.

1. Is buying second hand, retrofitted buses ever a viable option?

   

   • Does increased fuel consumption counteract local air pollutant reductions?
   • Is it even acceptable for cities to sell off buses that they themselves are no longer prepared to use?

2. How else may bus emissions be effectively reduced with limited resources?

   • Should the global, low cost EV bus market be exploited?
   • Is it enough to simply buy new Euro VI buses to replace older models no that tailpipe emissions are apparently so low?

What do you think?

Join the discussion by clicking here.

The sole responsibility for the content of this newsletter lies with the Clean Fleets project. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

The Clean Fleets newsletter is produced by the European Secretariat of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability. Copyright 2013 ICLEI European Secretariat GmbH, Freiburg, Germany. All rights reserved.