Partnerships for Progress: Spotlight on Barlow Respiratory Hospital

Every now and then, if you’re lucky, you have the good fortune to engage with a strategic partner who shares your goals, values and vision. With acres of common ground, you effortlessly work hand in hand to advance causes that truly matter to the both of you. For EVCS, Barlow Respiratory Hospital is such a partner – one of those rare facilities that fully embodies our commitment to making the planet a safer, healthier, happier place, one person at a time.

Barlow was founded in 1902 with a mission to achieve the best possible quality of life for the greatest number of people. They specialize in medically complex patients with breathing problems and hold the distinction of being the only not-for-profit long-term care hospital in California. Esteemed honors include being dubbed a Passy-Muir Center of Excellence and receiving several AARC Quality Respiratory Care Awards.

In 2020, we installed two 50 kWh DCFCs on their property, each with CHAdeMO and CCS connectors and a customer-friendly interface powered by proprietary software technology that makes it easy to pay, charge, and track the status of your EV during the charging cycle. “It’s wonderful that we have these charging stations outside our hospital. We’re so pleased that they’re here. They’re just a natural extension of how we serve our patients,” says Julia Shimizu, Director of Public Relations for Barlow.

It was fairly soon after we completed the installation, however, that we began to notice a number of similarities between our two organizations:

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1) A Reliance on State-of-the-Art Technology

Both Barlow and EVCS utilize world-class science and tech for the advancement of humanity. The specific instruments may be different, but the end goal – creating a better quality of life for people – is essentially the same. “We specialize in ventilator weaning, which very simply is helping people regain the ability to breathe on their own after being on a ventilator,” explains Shimizu. “The ability to do that depends on cutting edge, top-of-the-line technology, just like making EVs and EV charging stations.” How true. Moreover, we’re both continuing to innovate so that we’re well-positioned to continue our missions into the 21st century.

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2) The Concern for Public Health

It’s no small coincidence that Barlow and EVCS are both fiercely committed to better respiratory conditions. Barlow has been on the front lines of the COVID pandemic doing what they’ve always done: helping people regain the ability to fill their own lungs with clean, fresh air. This dedication has led them to seek additional ways to serve the greatest number of people. “We’re actually preparing to build a new, state-of-the-art hospital that will allow us to use our topline respiratory technology to better serve our patients,” says Shimizu. EVCS is similarly looking to help folks breathe better, but by reducing carbon emissions through the expansion of clean fuel infrastructure. And we, too, are constantly seeking to expand our reach.

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3) Focus on Individual Customer Care

EVCS has always put the customer first. All the tech in the world is useless if a company doesn’t have a customer care team that gives you the personal attention you deserve. Well, Barlow is our kindred spirit in that regard as well. Patient-focused care is the hallmark of their institution and is driven by selfless, devoted employees who work behind the scenes, often without accolades or attribution, to advance the quality of life for countless individuals. Shimizu sums up the philosophy perfectly: “Our staff is really important to what we do because it’s the personal touch that makes the technology work so well.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

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To learn more about Barlow and the tremendous work they’re doing in helping Los Angeles recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit them here: https://www.barlowhospital.org/covid-19/

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Installation of the Month (February 2021): Hollywood & Highland

In the movie Spider-man, Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” The phrase, which came to be known as the “Peter Parker Principle,” is just as true today as it was 20 years ago when the movie first premiered. And just as Peter took seriously his newfound powers, we take seriously our responsibility to facilitate broader access to vehicle electrification options – quite literally the “great power” here is the electricity that keeps EVs moving. We also understand the power of movies and television to convey the importance of electric mobility, be it through information, entertainment or influence marketing. As such, Hollywood has become a tremendous partner in advancing the EVCS mission.

Installation of the Month (January 2021): Barlow Respiratory Hospital

While 2021 brings hope and promise for greater widespread adoption of electric mobility, a quick glance at our portfolio reminds us of all the headway we’ve already made toward that end. Last year, we seized on positive customer sentiment and abundant fiscal opportunities in the green energy space, allowing us to become one of the top installers of EV charging infrastructure in the State of California (with 500+ installations completed and counting). As such, we thought it might be worthwhile to share some of these installations with you – a new success story each month – so that you can see firsthand the favorable strides we’re making toward a carbon-neutral future.

2020: A Year in Review

Two thousand twenty has been a year of undeniable adversity, but also one of remarkable achievement. A year of firsts and hopefully a few lasts. A time of toil and tribulation, but also of triumph. For genuine success is partly defined by our ability to hurdle those implacable obstacles that make the result so noteworthy in the first place. Now, as the EVCS team looks back on this unusual year, we take stock of our unique achievements that made 2020 one for the books.

Electrification Progress in the Age of COVID

It’s pretty clear that vaccine or no, COVID will be here for a while, and with it the new normal of face masks, social distancing, telecommuting and (consequently) less road travel. While some might view this with trepidation, we see it as an opportunity. Since the earliest weeks of the pandemic, major metro areas like Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago – those with large reductions in automobile traffic – immediately began seeing improvements in air quality, according to articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. More recent, an NPR story noted ozone pollution has decreased as much as 15% in many of these places. It seems an unintended consequence of the lockdown has been to accelerate the transition to responsible mobility by demonstrating its positive effects on the environment.

Commentary on Geotab’s 2020 EV Fleet Trends Article – Part II

Two weeks ago, we published part one of our commentary on Geotab’s in-depth article, “Electric Vehicle Trends 2020: Top 6 Factors Impacting Fleet Electrification” (https://www.geotab.com/white-paper/electric-vehicle-trends/). Again, the idea was to assess whether each of the trends were evolving as Geotab predicted and, if so, how EVCS was responding to them in the marketplace. Below are the final three trends referenced and our thoughts on each.