Green Tech Startup MoveEV Leads AEG Boston Stakeholder Challenge Task Force

Boston, MA, April 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MoveEV, the first-of-its-kind AI-driven green tech solution designed to make electric vehicle (EV) adoption accessible and affordable for companies and their employees, helping reduce their carbon footprint and reach net-zero emissions targets by 2035, will lead the newly formed task force for the Advanced Energy Group’s (AEG) Boston Stakeholder Challenge. MoveEV’s CEO David Lewis, Co-founder Kate L. Harrison, and Head of Technology Brant Carter will lead a group of expert volunteers from various industries tasked with devising a clean transportation solution for underserved communities in Massachusetts in 2023. 

H.G. Chissell founded the AEG Stakeholder Challenge in 2016. AEG designs and facilitates quarterly and annual three-part stakeholder competitions for major cities and vulnerable regions including Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico/Caribeean. The in-person workshops bring together utility, corporate, nonprofit and municipal leaders to collaborate, align on a critical obstacle, agree on a 12-month path to success, and act with accountability and urgency. 

The other 2023 task force members include Heather Takle (PowerOptions), Trevor Smith (Ameresco), Katherine Grillo (City of Cambridge), Mark Moniz (Eversource Energy), Susan Chapin (Sensible Sustainability LLC), Shonte Davidson (Impact Energy), Christine Cole (Itron), Alistair Pim and Imran Qidwai (NECEC), Travis Anderson (Boston Planning and Development Agency), Daniel Gatti (Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs), Christoph Domke (Guidehouse), Yury Maximov (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Moneer Azzam (Beacon Climate Innovations), Shalaya Morrissette (Department of Energy) Benjamin Hartford (ZEVx), Chris Wolfington (Ground Truth Energy), Ethan Severance (Foley Hoag), Jeff Wolfe (Veloce Energy Heat), and Lucas Casás (AEG/New York University).

The group will identify communities suffering the most from air quality issues created by gas vehicles, and focus its solution on how to transition vehicles driven most often in these environmental justice areas from gas to electric and fund and build the charging infrastructure needed to support them. 

“This is a tremendous opportunity to give back to the community,” Lewis said. “I founded MoveEV to help everyday Americans get into electric cars and reap their benefits. Environmental justice communities are disproportionately harmed by local air pollution from Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles, and I feel called to make sure these communities get the funding and programs they need to transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric.”

A recent study found that every 20 zero-emission vehicles per 1,000 people in a given zip code led to a 3.2 percent drop in the rate of emergency room visits due to asthma. In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu campaigned on the promise of a “Green New Deal” that would transition the city away from fossil fuels and prepare for the effects of climate change. Oliver Sellers-Garcia was named Boston’s first Green New Deal Director in August 2022.

The task force led by Lewis, Harrison, and Carter seeks to identify and remove the roadblocks to EV adoption in environmental justice communities through practical solutions:

• Increasing the electrical capacity in these areas for the purpose of adding more EVs and EV charging stations

• Leveraging grants and other financial assistance programs to fund the EV conversion

• Working with the major community stakeholders

Anyone who has useful information or skills to contribute to the task force can join by requesting access via jess@goadvancedenergy.com.