Coalitions Foster New Relationships To Facilitate Coordinated Clean Transportation Efforts

Sept. 26, 2024

Increased coordination and collaboration are helping Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, one third of which come from transportation. To advance this effort, county staff applied to participate in a U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) peer-learning cohort to develop an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure plan. Through C2C, the Milwaukee County Office of Sustainability worked with their local Clean Cities and Communities coalition, Wisconsin Clean Cities (WCC), to facilitate connections between county offices, align clean transportation goals, and break down silos to accelerate clean transportation deployment.

“The cohort gave us the opportunity to build a relationship with an arm of the county we hadn’t worked with before,” said Lorrie Lisek, executive director of WCC, who partnered closely with Milwaukee County’s sustainability office in the six-month C2C cohort to incorporate clean transportation strategies into the county’s climate action plan.

C2C connects local governments, tribes, electric utilities, and community-based organizations with national laboratory experts to develop clean energy strategies that reflect local and regional priorities. C2C program leaders at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory pair participants in transportation-related peer-learning cohorts with Clean Cities and Communities coalitions, who share their expertise and resources to bolster their partners’ efforts.

Through C2C, Lisek saw an opportunity to help the sustainability office coordinate with the county’s fleet management division—a longtime WCC partner. WCC previously had helped county fleet managers identify opportunities to install EV charging infrastructure and transition some of their vehicles to EVs. This existing connection made WCC well-positioned to take action when they learned the sustainability office hadn’t yet connected with the fleet management division on how they could strengthen clean transportation initiatives through collaboration.

Local Ties Help Connect Sustainability Efforts

With funding from C2C, WCC had staff time and resources to build bridges and facilitate conversations with other county offices pursuing vehicle electrification.

“Lorrie would bring up topics relevant to our fleet department that were not on my radar,” said Grant Helle, energy program manager for Milwaukee County’s Office of Sustainability. “Understanding the fleet staff’s needs and priorities gives me the confidence to connect and develop next steps for us to work together towards our electrification goals.”

One Expert in a Network of Many

The sustainability office also received support from WCC’s network of clean transportation stakeholders, including electric utilities and original equipment manufacturers. These entities offered guidance for making informed decisions on installing chargers, purchasing EVs, and setting realistic clean transportation goals.

In addition, activities and training materials provided through the cohort helped WCC build their own organizational knowledge to share with the county offices. These resources provided a starting point for WCC to dig deeper to help their partner by conducting additional research. For example, the sustainability office was interested in making new county buildings EV-ready, so WCC investigated local zoning codes and ordinances to help the sustainability office understand the opportunities and limitations for installing EV charging infrastructure.

“WCC has always focused on the transportation sector, on vehicles. Now we’re getting into the buildings side of things, which we’ve never done before,” Lisek said.

EV friendly planning can help communities evaluate their readiness and plan for the arrival of EVs and the charging infrastructure needed to support those vehicles. Being able to efficiently navigate the planning, policies and regulations, and services needed for EVs can help accelerate infrastructure deployment, making it easier for the county to reach electrification and emissions reductions goals.

“We have some employees whose personal vehicles are EVs or plug-in hybrids. Being able to provide them infrastructure to charge at the workplace is a consideration for helping us meet our goals,” Helle said.

Through their participation in C2C, WCC also gave the sustainability office the opportunity to meet other Clean Cities and Communities coalitions and their stakeholders. The sustainability office learned about the broad expertise available for all coalition stakeholders through Clean Cities and Communities.

“In the cohort, coalitions linked together different municipalities and governments that don’t know each other and likely have never interacted, making the cohort feel familiar and intimate,” Helle said. “I found it impressive and inspiring that coalitions have the same end goals, but they can support their partners in different ways.”

The county-wide collaboration fostered through the C2C cohort laid the groundwork to bolster other work, as well, including making the county’s climate action plan more comprehensive. Alignment between offices will increase the plan’s success, so Lisek is bringing in additional entities to enhance coordination of efforts. For example, the airport is interested in adopting EVs for their operations to reduce emissions, and WCC is bringing them into the fold to facilitate a joint vision for helping achieve the climate action plan’s goals by reducing transportation emissions in county operations through electrification. Lisek expects to continue expanding the collaboration as they take the EV infrastructure plan developed through the C2C cohort and turn it into on-the-ground actions.

For more information about C2C, visit the Clean Energy to Communities Program webpage on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory website.