Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions: The Final Report - MTA

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Facilities
Building and facility design, construction, operations, and maintenance
Along with major fixed structures such as bridges, rail lines,
and tunnels, the MTA maintains a highly diverse building
portfolio of hundreds of facilities, including rail stations,
subway stations, maintenance barns, office buildings, and
such landmark properties as Grand Central Terminal. The
buildings represent a wide range of functions and styles.
Many are open-air structures; some border wetlands, rivers,
or parks; most date from the early 20th century; a number
feature state-of-the-art designs; several occupy some of
the most valuable real estate in the world. The MTA acts
as both a builder and operator of its facilities. Both roles
involve extensive management of energy systems, materials,
and other aspects of sustainability. Because these holdings
are so extensive, the MTA can make a significant contribution
to regional sustainability through green building design
and management.
MTA’s Corona Maintenance Facility was North America’s
and the MTA’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) certified transit facility. Based on
this pioneering effort, the Commission has determined
that LEED standards can apply to some transit facilities,
and the Commission has recommended that in the future
all applicable MTA projects seek a LEED Silver certification.
However, the current LEED standards do not substantially
apply to many typical transit facilities, such as power substations
and most rail stations. With guidance from the
Commission, the MTA is drafting the green building guidelines
that will specify how these facility types can be designed
in a sustainable way (see table later in this chapter).
The MTA Green Building Guidelines will incorporate LEED
criteria, as well as MTA-specific environmental criteria
relating to noise and vibration, security, maintenance of
transit operations, visual impact, and other transit-specific
qualities. Once developed, these guidelines can serve as an
industry model for green transit facilities and should be
submitted to the U.S. Green Building Congress (USGBC)
for potential adoption as a LEED for Transit standard.
The other area where LEED standards may not apply to
MTA facilities is in older structures. The MTA portfolio
includes a large number of legacy structures from the
early 20th century or before. While there are LEED standards
for existing buildings (LEED-EB), only a minority of
MTA structures can be readily adapted to meet them due
to their specified functions. The MTA should seek LEED-EB
certification for Grand Central Terminal, which would make
it a national showcase for greening landmark buildings.
For greening most of the MTA’s facilities, two ready options
exist. Many of the more recent buildings should be recommissioned
to optimize all energy systems. The MTA is
identifying and assessing such structures. The remaining
facilities should undergo rigorous energy auditing, as
described in the Energy/Carbon chapter of this report.
The Commission has urged the MTA to accelerate its
building energy retrofits in conjunction with the NYPA,
recommending that MTA set a goal of reevaluating the
energy-efficiency potential of 100 percent of major MTA
facilities every 10 years. The retrofits entail ongoing green
enhancements, such as high-efficiency lighting systems,
boilers, and HVAC systems. In addition, the MTA has a
number of green innovations for its existing facilities in
various stages of planning, including high-performance
roofs (vegetated “green” roofs, white roofs, and rainwaterretentive
“blue” roofs) and other rainwater capture systems,
solar panels, motion-activated escalators, groundwater thermal
exchange systems, and more. Greener building maintenance
should become standard operating procedure and would
complement the initiatives described in the Energy/Carbon,
Materials Flow, and Water Management chapters of this report.
In light of the current financial climate, the Commission
looked carefully at costs and potential savings in green
building design. Its survey showed that LEED buildings
can achieve operating cost savings as great as 9 percent
annually, often enough to absorb their somewhat higher
project contracting costs within a reasonable payback period.
Upfront capital costs for LEED buildings can vary widely,
depending on the project and the level of LEED attainment
sought, according to King County Metro Transit in
Washington State and Los Angeles County MTA, two
transit agencies with experience building LEED facilities.
They estimate that it can cost little or nothing extra for
projects to attain LEED certification and as much as 25 percent
extra to attain LEED Platinum. Los Angeles MTA also
found that some building projects could move up from LEED
certified to a higher LEED rating at little or no added cost.
To realize the full value of green design, the Commission
has also recommended that the MTA adopt a Lifecycle
Analysis (LCA) system for buildings, like the one described
in the Materials Flow chapter of this report. Building design
and maintenance can also benefit from the Sustainable
Return on Investment (SROI) model presented in the
Transit’s Triple Bottom Line chapter.