Meeting of 3/06 on Transport sustainability with Bruxelles Environnement

“How can we make transport in our school ecofriendly?”

As part of the agenda fixed in the School's working group on sustainability, Bruxelles Environnement, the school management and the APEEE discussed mobility issues in last week’s (virtual) meeting. This has been the kick-off of a pilot project that hopefully will be of interest also to other European Schools in Brussels.

The project consists of two parts: one dedicated to the overall mobility situation of our school and the second focusing specifically on how to make a successful transition to zero carbon transport for school buses.

The hope is that the first part of the pilot projects will provide the school with recommendations on how to make cycling, walking and use of public transport safer and more attractive, plus - crucially- mapping out how those recommendations can be translated into action. This in itself will be no mean feat, considering that the streets surrounding the school are managed by two different communes. The school is already leading the way with the installation of additional bike stands, and we hope that more can be done. The idea of a Kiss&Ride zone was also raised in the wider mobility agenda. 

The second part will be dedicated to issuing recommendations for a gradual replacement of the current bus fleet by electric buses. Transport, as a service that is directly managed by parents, is an opportunity to use our market power to nudge things into a more sustainable direction of travelling. We are looking to this project to find out useful insights on topics ranging from availability of electric buses, subsidies and support schemes for operators willing and able to take this step with us, implications for day-to-day operations, necessity or not of charging infrastructure...And so forth.

This is a transition that won't happen overnight, but our ambition is to take a first step in September 2021 by start using a small number of electric buses next school year.

What better way to show that we care as much about the quality of air our children are breathing today as we do about mitigating climate change and its direct impact which they will experience in their lifetimes?

The WG Sustainability - APEEE Ixelles