Shuttle Coordinator Angelo Longo helps drive VCH towards a lighter carbon footprint
Having worked with Vancouver Coastal Health’s (VCH) shuttle program for 26 years, Angelo Longo had been thinking about more sustainable transportation options for years. However, meeting Sustainability Consultant Emily Lomax encouraged Angelo to take a leading role. “It was eye-opening,” Angelo says of their conversation. Angelo realized hospitals had a responsibility to create lighter carbon footprints—and that he wanted to be part of this change.
For over a year now, Angelo has served as Shuttle Coordinator for the Cambie Corridor Consortium, a non-profit that operates out of VCH and provides transportation options to VCH, Providence, and PHSA staff, as well as other and the UBC health programs who need to travel for health care business . Working with 13 drivers, Angelo coordinates the day-to-day operations of five hospital shuttles that operate between 7 different health care facilities and UBC, across Vancouver.
An easy, reliable, safe and fun method of transportation, Angelo works hard to keep his drivers and passengers happy. He takes great pride in his job. For Angelo, there’s no greater satisfaction than ending his day at 5:30pm and seeing the Consortium’s five vans parked in the lot, knowing that those vans have transported hundreds of people back and forth every day — greatly contributing to reducing VCH’s carbon footprint with every trip.
To date, the Cambie Corridor Consortium has transported over 3 million passengers and couriered over 600,000 items. The shuttle program also goes above and beyond its mandate. The service helped move an entire medical ward from UBC to Richmond and assisted in 2021 with staff being transported for their COVID vaccine and was part of the talks in transporting seniors from the airport that were forced to evacuate from senior residences in the Merritt flooding of last year.
Working in the Shuttle Coordinator role has allowed him to understand when people say they love their jobs. Angelo unreservedly loves his work and being able to make meaningful environmental contributions in his role. He is immensely grateful to VCH and UBC for their belief in and continued support of the program.
Looking to the future, Angelo is excited to explore opportunities to use plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles as part of the shuttle fleet. The Consortium has already purchased and leased two hybrid vehicles and Longo hopes to build on this initial momentum. He wants to ensure that the shuttle program adapts and grows its mandate and services, continuing to successfully serve the changing times and requirements in the health care sector for years to come.
