Electric school buses offer a good return on


investment, once figuring in grants, other incentives


and cost-savings Written By Kari Lydersen


I


n February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic erupted, spouses Patty Buchanan and Chandu Visweswariah co-founded the organiza- tion Croton100 that aims to eliminate greenhouse


gas emissions by 2040 in the town of Croton on Hudson, located about 40 miles north of New York City. It was a charter chapter of the coalition CURE 100, or


Communities United to Reduce Emissions 100%. With such a lofty goal, the not-for-profit consortium of communities set about investigating how to make the biggest greenhouse gas reductions on a local level. It soon found that schools account for a significant


portion of a typical town’s carbon emissions, with school buses being a major emitter. Hence with lit- tle background in school transportation, the couple spent countless hours during the pandemic educating themselves on the nuances of clean school buses—the


36 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2021


available electric bus models and manufacturers, the best technology, and perhaps most importantly the eco- nomics. That included researching the many funding streams available and developing relationships with state regulators. Using federal data, they crafted an interactive spread- sheet, which can be found at stnonline.com/go/a8, that grew increasingly more nuanced and customizable over time. The spreadsheet is a user-friendly tool that allows district officials, parents or anyone who is curious to cal- culate the cost-benefit ratios and return-on-investment timeline for electric bus purchases. Entering in variables like size of bus, miles driven and


grants available, Visweswariah demonstrated how the spreadsheet demystifies the economics of an electric bus versus a fossil fuel option. It shows return on investment versus a diesel bus, and based on school district sizes


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