Conestoga College has become the beneficiary of a $14,500 community environmental fund sustainability grant from Waterloo Region that will go toward the installation of electric vehicle charging stations on two Conestoga campuses.
The grant is expected to assist in the funding of three electric vehicle charging stations to be installed at the Doon campus and another two at the Waterloo campus.
Tony Sasso, Conestoga’s manager of utilities sustainability and facilities information systems, says he expects the installation to be complete by sometime around mid-May. On that timeline, students and educators with electric vehicles can expect to be topping off their batteries at school soon after the spring semester begins.
“We are pleased to offer our students, employees and community members peace of mind knowing their vehicles can be recharged on campus,” said Sasso.
If the project is successful and the charging stations receive plenty of use, the plan will be to build charging stations at other campuses, Sasso said.
The installation of these stations is another win for Conestoga, which has demonstrated a commitment to sustainability. There was recently a massive expansion on the Waterloo campus where solar panels, chilled water storage and low-flow water fixtures were all installed.
There was also a multimillion-dollar renovation at the Guelph campus as a part of Conestoga’s continuing commitment to sustainable energy consumption.
It will be decades before the last combustion engine shuts off. However, companies such as Tesla are leading the charge towards sustainability and a world where electric vehicles are ubiquitous on our roadways. Today it is not uncommon to see hybrid, and fully electric cars on the morning commute. But for the drivers of electric vehicles, finding a place to charge is not always a walk in the park.
