Power Plant workers are turning to an alternative source of energy – their legs.
Power Plant employee Joe Reaume takes a test run on one of the new bicycles for service and maintenance calls.
To reduce carbon emissions and increase productivity, the Physical Plant and Capital Planning services department has purchased three bicycles for making regular service calls around campus.
The idea was the brainchild of Power Plant supervisor Mike Herman, and Power Plant Operations manager Rod Crichton had no hesitation in going with the idea.
“We have one truck and at least five guys spread out over the campus,” says Crichton. “So with one truck there is a lot of wasted time waiting for it to get back, so this means better mobility on our part, better efficiency and there’s also the green component.”
While bikes will include pouches for smaller tools, the plan calls for using vehicles to transport all the tools for a particular job so employees can bike each day to the worksite.
“Even from a point of view of investigating what a problem is, prior to bringing in additional resources, the bikes would be great,” says Crichton. “We could take a look then decide what we need to do. No sense driving over if it’s a quick fix.”
A few workers haven’t been on a bicycle in years, so Campus Community Police Service provided a session on bike safety and skills for each employee.
Soon, the Power Plant will also receive an electric car to add to the fleet.