I’m not an organized person by nature. So one of the best bits of advice I ever got was a cleaning tip: “When you’re cleaning the house, do the sink first.”

It makes sense. It’s something small that’s usually easy to do quickly. Getting it done makes you feel good, which motivates you to keep going. And once it’s done, a lot of other tasks get easier: washing the dishes, cleaning the counters those dishes were on, and so on. 

It’s a little thing that helps get a bigger process underway.

Kind of like what’s been happening with our electric vehicle charging stations.

You may remember that over the summer, we upgraded the four City-owned EV stations to handle two cars at a time rather than just one. If you’ve used those stations since then, you’ve noticed something else, too: no bill. Your car got charged, but your wallet didn’t.

Nice surprise, right? It’s something we plan to keep doing, too. Not just to be nice guys, but because this is our sink-cleaning – something easy we can do to keep things moving.

Some of you may know the City has a sustainability plan. One of the items in it is to encourage people to travel in ways that don’t require gasoline. That includes walking, cycling … and of course, electric vehicles.

The Level 2 stations had always been inexpensive, just $1 per hour for a driver to charge, and the power cost was minimal. So we asked the question: how much more would they get used if there wasn’t a fee at all? We decided to try it.

Our customers responded. Frequently.

In a four-month period, the EV stations got triple the use that they had seen in all of 2018. Enough cars were charging up to save five tons of greenhouse gas. That simple. That effective.

If you’re curious to find out more about the stations or about EVs in general, check out our charging station page. You’ll find location information, FAQs, a link for the ChargePoint app used by the stations and more.

Everything but the kitchen sink.

And even that’ll be nice and scrubbed.