By: Shelly Parker, Clean Transportation Senior Project Manager

The NCCETC Clean Energy Transportation Team attended the Appalachian Energy Summit (AES) at the beginning of June. The Summit is a multi-day event that began in 2012, and attendees include faculty, staff, and students from across North Carolina, as well as representatives from universities in the Southeast. 

NCCETC Clean Transportation Director Heather Brutz and Senior Project Manager Shelly Parker led the Transportation Oriented Opportunities Workgroup. The Working Group Speakers focused on university examples of implementing sustainable energy solutions on the Wake Technical College campuses across Wake County and on UNC Charlotte’s campus. The City of Winston-Salem presentation focused on collaboration with universities.

John Majernik, the Director of Energy, Sustainability, and Transportation at Wake Technical Community College, provided an overview of the college’s parking lot solutions. These included solar lighting, pervious parking surfaces, EV charging stations, and designated parking spaces for carpoolers. He also shared strategies for reducing Scope 3 emissions related to commuting to campus.

Dr. Mike Lizotte, the University Sustainability Officer and a professor in the Civil Engineering department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, discussed improvements in the campus’s transit system, infrastructure, and surrounding areas since the launch of the City of Charlotte Area Transit’s blue line light rail, which terminates at the campus. He highlighted increased on-campus transit access, now available every 12 minutes, as well as the expansion of e-mobility options and additional housing near campus to shorten commutes.

Dr. Shaleen Miller, the Director of Sustainability and Intergovernmental Relations for the City of Winston-Salem and an adjunct professor at UNC Greensboro, reviewed the city’s successes and challenges in collaborating with fellowships and externally subsidized internship programs that focused on research for fleet replacement with sustainable vehicles. She also discussed successful partnerships with UNC Greensboro and Wake Forest University on capstone projects and business consulting, offering a detailed examination of fleet opportunities and the need for well-placed EV charging stations.

The session was well attended with attendees engaging in discussion beyond the working group and into lunch.