At a press conference today, the MTA replaced the last of its 4,000 incandescent bulbs in Grand Central Terminal. More than just a gesture, it was meant to symbolize the agency’s future commitment to sustainability, and it even makes the case that if the city’s most important and iconic buildings–not to mention its oldest–can be greened, why not the rest? For a full video report on the event, as well as more pictures, visit the A/N Blog.
The MTA also used the occasion, one week after Earth Day, to announce its final sustainability report, Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions. (A copy of the report can be found here.) Developed over the past year-and-a-half by a blue ribbon commission of environmentalists and planners, the plan sets out the myriad ways the MTA can pursue a greener future.
Speaking at today’s event was Bob Fox, the Cook + Fox partner and chair of the commission’s facilities working group. Citing the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, which stipulates that each generation must consider the seven that follow it in making any decision, Fox said the MTA had indeed come to consider not only its future, but that of all New Yorkers who would use it for generations to come.
“Pretty soon, every structure of the MTA will be high-performance,” Fox said. “What we’re seeing here today, with the relighting of Grand Central, is another small but very important step towards that goal.”
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