Plant and Fleet

Council has a lot of roads, bridges, fields and open space to maintain. This requires a range of gardening equipment, cleaning equipment, mowers, utility vehicles and heavy vehicles which all contribute to Council’s greenhouse gas emissions.

In the year 2023/24 Council’s plant and fleet accounted for 49% of Council’s tracked emissions. Council is taking steps to reduce this, including looking at opportunities to transition parts of its plant and fleet to electric.

Starting with small plant and equipment, such as chainsaws and line trimmers, Council has begun to transition to electric models. Whenever a piece of small plant or equipment reaches the end of it life and a new one needs to be purchased, Council conducts a side-by-side analysis and favours the electric model where it is fit for purpose and represents value for money.

Council has recently replaced one of its diesel ride-on mowers with an electric mower as part of a transition trial. This will save approximately 15 tonnes of CO2-e per year. If the trial proves successful Council will look to transition more mowers in the future.

Council is also looking into charging infrastructure and electric vehicle options for its pool vehicles. Watch this space!