CITT News

The Columbia-Willamette Clean Cities Coalition, Mobilize California (MobilizeCA), Advanced Transportation and Logistics (ATL), and the Green Transportation Summit and Expo (GTSE) invited CITT to present a three-part Tech Talk series on the recently piloted Sustainable Freight Foundations Certificate. CITT developed this certificate in partnership with the California Energy Commission and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). The certificate is part of a broader research project undertaken by CITT to better understand the workforce needs and opportunities surrounding the implementation of the California Sustainable Freight Action Plan. That Plan envisions a future with a “more efficient, more economically competitive, and less polluting freight transport system."

In the February 2021 Mindful Mobility Tech Talk series, CITT Education and Workforce Program Developer Deanna Matsumoto, Research Associate Diana Sanchez, Executive Director Tom O’Brien, and program instructors Cameron Roberts, Kevin Maggay, and Matt Schrap presented a high-level overview of this first-of-its-kind certificate to an audience of over 100 that was national in scope. The audience included manufacturers (OEMs); federal, state, and local governments; railroads; freight forwarders; ports; retailers; drayage/trucking; warehousing; environmental agencies; distribution centers; inland and seaports; energy-related organizations; and Institutes of Higher Education.

Sanchez presented the research methodologies used in identifying sustainable freight occupations; the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed in the workplace; and the instructional design and delivery models that would be most effective. As 15 states and Washington, D.C. have adopted California’s vehicle emission standards under Section 177 of the Federal Clean Air Act, Matsumoto noted that there is interest in expanding the Sustainable Freight Foundations Certificate to a national audience. Adoption of these standards will necessitate workforce development training in sustainable freight in nearly one-third of the U.S. O’Brien discussed the possibility of expanding this initial certificate program into a more comprehensive industry-recognized certification. Roberts, Maggay and Schrap—who are also instructors in CITT’s Global Logistics Professional Program—discussed how each of the current modules (e.g., Freight Management, Energy Fundamentals, Compliance, and Digital Applications) can be developed into its own certificate, taking a deeper dive into each module. Continued collaboration will focus on developing more partnerships with industry, community colleges, and universities to create credit and/or non-credit courses to increase job readiness and marketability in the freight workforce.

To watch the Mindful Mobility series, please click on each part below:

• Part I
• Part II
• Part III