The city of Aurora last month earned a statewide award for its commitment to making its fleet of vehicles more sustainable.
The Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation, a statewide nonprofit that promotes environmentally-friendly vehicles and cleaner air, announced that Aurora had won its 2025 Clean Transportation Leadership Award for fleet suitability at its annual program and holiday reception on Dec. 11, where the organization also gave out other awards.
“We are honored to receive this award,” Aurora Superintendent of Fleet Maintenance Chris Linville said in a city news release. “We will continue to modernize our fleet, working hard to reduce emissions and support our sustainability goals.”
A separate news release from the Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation said Aurora was given the award for expanding its “clean fleet” and its electric vehicle charging capacity in 2025 despite complex procurement, budgeting and supply chain challenges.
Aurora added 13 new electric vehicles and 32 hybrid vehicles to its fleet in 2025, bringing its total up to 19 electric vehicles and 47 hybrid vehicles, according to the city’s news release.
After last year’s additions, 10% of Aurora’s licensed motorized fleet is now electric or hybrid, Linville told The Beacon-News. The city departments and divisions currently using electric vehicles include police, fire prevention, street maintenance, water and sewer, downtown services, central services, property standards, engineering and water production, he said.
The city also increased its electric vehicle charging capacity by 90%, the city news release said, with nine new dual-port Level 2 chargers installed in 2025.
“This award is a result of some of the small steps we have taken towards a more sustainable Aurora,” Mayor John Laesch said in the news release. “We will continue charting a more robust path towards energy efficiency programs that save more money for home and business owners in Aurora.”
At a committee meeting last week, Laesch presented Linville with a Mayor’s Award of Excellence for bringing in the Illinois Alliance for Clean Transportation award. Laesch said it was important that the city recognize Linville’s hard work, and he also recognized the city’s grant writers for helping fund the initiative and all the employees who had to adjust to getting a new type of vehicle.
As a result of the fleet upgrades, which were led by the city’s fleet maintenance, electrical maintenance and purchasing divisions, Aurora is seeing lower fuel use, reduced idling and emissions and longer periods between required fleet maintenance, according to the news release.
Investing in fuel-efficient vehicles is one of the goals stated in the city’s 2019 Sustainability Plan. And in a video posted to Aurora’s YouTube channel in September, Linville said the Public Works Department has a “green fleet policy” that prioritizes the purchase of the most fuel-efficient or eco-friendly vehicle possible for a given role.
Aside from the reduced emissions, electric vehicles are also simpler to maintain, Linville said in the video. There’s a lot less moving parts, he said, and they don’t require oil changes.
Director of Sustainability Alison Lindburg said in the September YouTube video that, when it comes to climate change, it is important to address the transportation sector. About a third of Aurora’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, she said.
“That’s why it’s important for people with their own personal vehicles, or with a city fleet, to be looking at EVs as a way to address climate change,” she said.
Aurora has recently been making strides towards being more sustainable in other ways too. For example, Lindburg’s position was created this year, and since her hire the city has started looking into energy stretch code adoption and has placed a temporary moratorium on data centers, partially citing environmental reasons.
Her new division, she said in the YouTube video from September, is working within the city’s existing economic development department to create jobs through sustainable actions.
City staff are also in the early stages of developing loan programs to support sustainable upgrades for commercial and residential properties.
Sustainability, particularly through green building, was a large part of Laesch’s campaign platform last year.
As a mayoral candidate, he told The Beacon-News that he would work to attract higher-paying jobs by “positioning Aurora for the green collar economy that’s coming,” at least in part by encouraging businesses that create innovative building materials to move to the city. Later, during his inauguration speech, Laesch said Aurora would be looking to partner with the local CEJA Workforce Hub to help train students for that coming “green collar economy.”
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/12/aurora-earns-statewide-award-for-fleet-sustainability/
