Moving Duke to A Clean Future – An Approach through Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Duke’s 2009 Climate Action Plan (CAP) has committed Duke to a carbon-neutral institution by 2024. In a recent update version published in 2019, Duke’s CAP focused on internal emission reduction strategies, especially on energy usage and transportation, to make sure Duke University strives to reduce emissions by 78% by 2024 compared to the 2007 baseline. Additionally, the updated plan showed that only transportation emission went up by 24% in 2019 compared to the 2007 baseline, especially the emission from employees’ commuting. Therefore, Sustainable Duke initiated this study to explore the potential of cutting transportation-related emissions from employees’ commuting by electrifying employee-owned vehicles. The results of the study show that Duke University can cut up to 17% of emission if implemented suggested incentive programs, and it is necessary to install additional EV charging infrastructure on campus.