City of Espoo inspects the use of renewable fuels by contracting partners

The City of Espoo has signed the Green Deal agreement on emission-free worksites. The voluntary agreement concerns public procurement. Its goal is to end the use of fossil fuels in the city's worksites by the end of 2025.

The concept of emission-free work worksites is a general description of principles and operating methods aimed at reducing emissions at worksites. The concept is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions, harmful exhaust emissions and noise at worksites.

Since replacing current cars with more sustainable models is a slow process, renewable fuels are a practical and cost-effective way to reduce emissions in the meantime. The use of electric machinery and vehicles will increase in the future, and hydrogen may also eventually become a common fuel on worksites.

Fuel tested in a laboratory by an independent operator

The City of Espoo must therefore ensure that renewable fuel is used both in the city’s own equipment and in the equipment of its contracting partners.  Until now, the city has carried out spot checks on the use of renewable fuel by checking receipts of purchased fuel. A recently tested new operating model adds another step, where an independent operator verifies the quality of the fuel with laboratory testing. Testing is done on fuel samples taken directly from the machinery at the worksites.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time that a public operator has commissioned such testing in Finland,” says Pekka Pakkala, Development Manager at the Public Works Department. “The main objectives of the testing were to assess how functional and cost-effective the monitoring method is when compared to the current practice. At the same time, we want to signal to our contracting partners that the monitoring will ensure a fair operating environment and fair contract monitoring to all operators,” Pakkala continues.

The results indicated compliance with the agreement, although notable shortcomings were detected in one sample. Further investigations gave a satisfactory answer, and so the testing did not lead to any contractual measures.   

“Finding new operating models with our partners plays a key role,” Project Manager Tommi Verho from the Public Works Department explains. “Nonetheless, we would like to see an even faster and wider increase in the supply of climate-friendly alternative propulsion solutions,” he continues.

In spring 2025, a competitive tender will be held to choose the vehicle and machinery services for maintenance and construction for the next four years. In the resulting contracts, the City of Espoo will require that its partners comply with the Green Deal agreement on emission-free worksites.

Carbon neutral Espoo 2030

The Espoo City Council approved the Carbon neutral Espoo 2030 roadmap last year. The roadmap describes what kind of work the city will do, both by itself and with its partners and residents, in order to achieve its carbon neutrality target. The roadmap includes measures for achieving the target of 80% in emission reductions. Link to the roadmap: https://espoo.oncloudos.com/kokous/20241196-7-244781.PDF(external link, opens in a new window)

The Innovation Challenge Engine for Cities is a project that works with companies and universities as well as actors in research, development and innovation in order to develop solutions to the challenges of sustainable urban development. The Innovation Challenge Engine for Cities project is co-implemented with the City of Vantaa.

Sources:

The Finnish Information Centre of Automobile Sector https://www.aut.fi/tieliikenne/polttoaineet_ja_kayttovoimat/biopolttoaineet(external link, opens in a new window)

Carbon neutral Espoo 2030 road map: Hiilineutraali Espoo 2030 -tiekartta(external link, opens in a new window)