Leaders for Clean Air creating momentum for more electric vehicles in Utah

Mar 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah

As electric vehicle owners north of Salt Lake sometimes have a tricky time tracking down places to recharge their rides, one nonprofit is working to help businesses drive major change.

Leaders for Clean Air, founded in January 2015, has an ambitious goal -- installing 2,000 new EV chargers up and down the Wasatch Front by 2017.

The nonprofit works with business owners and executives to install EV stations for their employees for free. If the companies decide they're benefitting from the chargers, they donate funds -- usually around $550 -- so chargers can be installed elsewhere.

The business is already seeing success, partly due to its "pay-it-forward" model.

"We decided this has to be free at first, and it needs to be easy," said Hanko Kiessner, CEO of Packsize in Salt Lake and founder of Leaders for Clean Air. "It needs to be driven by leaders because change usually happens from top down."

Kiessner came up with the 2,000 chargers goal because he figures it's about 15 percent of the number the Wasatch Front needs before commuters adopt electric cars on a large scale. That 15 percent is a sweet spot that creates momentum. If people see more chargers where they work and shop, they're more likely to buy electric cars. As demand grows, businesses feel the pressure to install more chargers.

"We will have moved the market to a point where the market will take care of itself," Kiessner said. "We're trying to make (electric vehicles) go viral in the Utah economy."

Leaders for Clean Air is approaching its 100th installed EV charger. It's mostly seen interest from the outdoor and tech industries. Kiessner said the attraction for these types of companies makes sense.

"Software and high-tech companies have run into problems attracting talent because of our air quality problems," he said. "They're young, dynamic people who care about environment and want to be outdoors, but they find out about air quality problem and don't want to move here."

Most of the new charging stations have been installed in the Salt Lake City area, but a few have made their way north. CubiScan in Farmington has one, Kiessner said, and Davis Hospital in Layton installed one last May.

"We were impressed with the program and their mission," said Michael Paul Amos, assistant administrator at Davis Hospital and Medical Center. "As a large employer in the Davis County area, we want to be a responsible corporate citizen, and we care about our community and environment."

Amos said hospital administrators learned about the program when one of their employees brought it to the CEO's attention. Two months after contacting Leaders for Clean Air, the hospital had its charging station up and running with two designated parking stalls. It's available to employees, patients and visitors at the hospital.

"Rarely a day goes by that we do not have a vehicle using the service," Amos said. "We have even had one employee who specifically chose to purchase an electric vehicle, knowing that they would have the opportunity to charge it while they were working."

And that's Kiessner's objective. He's overseen the installation of 24 chargers at his own company, PackSize's, two Salt Lake locations. Staff members can use them for free. Around 15 percent of his 70 employees now drive electric cars, Kiessner said.

"We've done the math, and employees save in excess of a thousand dollars a year in driving the car and not having to pay for electricity," he said. "It's almost like a pay raise by basically letting employees get free gasoline in the form of electricity ... and the company does not have an extra $1,000 in expenses, it's more like $100."

That's partly because electricity in Utah is so inexpensive. And while it's true that electric vehicles aren't exactly zero-emission, since most of Utah's power comes from coal-burning plants in southern parts of the state, more electric vehicles along the Wasatch Front could put a dent in winter inversion and summer ozone pollution. A large portion of that bad air comes from combustion-engine emissions.

The Governor's Office of Energy Development is supportive of Leaders for Clean Air's efforts, telling the Standard-Examiner they're "big fans" of the program. And while the nonprofit's influence north of the state capital has been small, Kiessner said the group is interested in reaching out to businesses in Davis and Weber counties. He met with business leaders in Ogden last September.

He said there are plenty of reasons for companies large and small to install a charger or two.

"Because it's the right thing to do, and because in the long term, it's inevitable that we'll migrate toward a zero emission society," he said. "I don't see a reason not to do it, not at all."

Contact Reporter Leia Larsen at 801-625-4289 or llarsen@standard.net. Follow her on Facebook.com/leiaoutside or on Twitter @LeiaLarsen.

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