A 'green' vehicle fleet for Shelby County: Mayor Lee Harris signs executive order

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct number of vehicles in the Shelby County fleet. 

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has signed an executive order that says his government will give priority to the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles and will install electric vehicle charging stations at county-owned facilities.

At the signing ceremony Wednesday, Harris said strides have been made to combat climate change, including by directing county funding toward public transportation.

“But it’s not enough and we have to keep moving forward at every level of decision making authority," Harris said. “The vast majority of the carbon emissions which are heating our atmosphere as we speak are from cars and trucks, so we’ve got to get more cars and trucks off the road, we’ve got to shift our mindset such that we are emphasizing more electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles and we’ve got to keep going.”

Now, the county must ensure that a minimum of 5% of the fleet under the mayor's control, which does not include Sheriff's Office or school system vehicles, are "green" by the end of 2027. After that year, 20% of passenger vehicles purchased or leased by the county per year must be green "if their use is appropriate to the application" and if "economically feasible."

The order also requires the creation of a fleet inventory of vehicles by each department under the mayor's administration, allowing for the replacement of older and inefficient vehicles with green vehicles.

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Currently the county's vehicle fleet includes about 600 vehicles, ranging from offices like public works to health services. Last week, the Shelby County Commission approved the $350,000 purchase of an electric medium-duty dump truck to be used in the county's litter collection program.

And, the county's public works division and the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development recently partnered to receive a $500,000 grant to develop a pilot of electric fleet vehicles and charging station infrastructure.

The county's current fully electric and hybrid vehicles include a fully electric Ford F-150 Lightning used by the roads, bridges and engineering department, a fully electric Chevrolet Bolt purchased on June 6 and used by the office of planning and development and Hybrid Ford Focus used by support services. Those three vehicles were shown to youth climate activists and others Wednesday.

In November 2020, Harris presented a green fleet policy to the Shelby County Commission. The policy required that fuel efficiency information be included in future resolutions regarding the purchase of vehicles and prioritized the purchase of green fleet vehicles.

On-road transportation produces 39% of the county's greenhouse gas emissions in 2016, according to The Memphis Area Climate Action Plan, a statistic cited by the executive order.

The new executive order, which will be presented to the commission in the form of an ordinance so that, if approved, it can last beyond Harris' administration, also requires Shelby County employees in county-owned vehicles to not allow vehicles to idle longer than five minutes, unless necessary for the operation of equipment.

John Zeanah, director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, said Harris' order would help implement the Memphis Area Climate Action Plan, which was developed several years ago.

“This bold step led by Mayor Lee Harris for Shelby County’s vehicles not only helps to set the stage within Shelby County Government, but helps the county demonstrate leadership across our community so we can begin to reach these aggressive goals of climate change reduction over time," Zeanah said.

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris signs executive order for electric cars