Five months ago this week, a team of four students launched EcoCarriage, a company aiming to provide and support zero emission fuels that transport people and products.

Founder Ian Blochwitz, a senior at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry who is graduating this semester, came up with the idea in his capstone class.

There, he met the other three members of his team: Zack Daniels, project manager and SUNY-ESF Class of 2017 graduate; Patrick Shanahan, a SUNY-ESF senior majoring in sustainable energy management; and Haley Jones, a Syracuse University senior majoring in advertising and geography.

Blochwitz said the three met through a shared passion for the environment.

The team is planning to launch a beta site by May 2018. They’re doing this with help from collaborations with Larkin Square in Buffalo; Couri Hatchery, a student mentorship program through the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; and other energy startups on the East Coast.

Currently, their goal is to build networks of both people and charging stations, Blochwitz said. They’re linking sustainable energy with the transportation industry with, as of now, a conceptual model. Jones said she wasn’t sure what renewable transportation required first — charging stations or electric vehicles.

“I think it’s a big question of the chicken or the egg,” she said.

Either way, she said, EcoCarriage and companies similar to it are attempting to change the “framework of the system” in whatever way they can.

Blochwitz pointed out that the market for renewable energies and companies like his are steadily growing.

“It’s good timing,” he said.

On Sept. 19, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported that “to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, the world must limit warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.”

The council called on the United States, the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas, to cut their greenhouse gas pollution by at least 80 percent by 2050.

Renewable Energy World reported in April that it anticipates a surge in demand for renewable energy certificates.

In response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement in June, three states formed the U.S. Climate Alliance. The alliance was announced by California Gov. Jerry Brown, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The coalition, which eventually expanded to include 14 states and Puerto Rico, is “committed to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” according to the alliance’s website.

Alliance states have already seen a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2005 and 2015, according to an alliance report.

Shanahan said in the long run, renewable energies will stabilize the cost of transportation. Gas prices can and will fluctuate with seasonal demand, competition between local retail fueling prices, disruptions in crude oil supply and problems with refineries or delivery pipelines.

Shanahan said he believes this price fluctuation will not happen with renewable energies, since they’re independent of price.

“Carriage is focused on meeting sustainable needs on transportation,” Blochwitz said. The company motto is: “Be There.”

Published on October 2, 2017 at 11:45 pm

Contact Ali: akharfor@syr.edu