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The "Green Team"
Promoting Green Construction & Operations
The environmental impacts of major development projects – shopping malls, sports stadiums, campus expansions, and the like -- don’t end with construction. From design to construction to operation and maintenance and all the way through to demolition, a development can use tremendous amounts of energy and natural resources, while generating large quantities of waste. Buildings, through the sheer amount of power they use, are responsible for some 40 percent of the nation’s energy consumption and 40 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions. For these reasons, EPA Region 2 forms partnerships with various organizations to reduce the environmental impacts of their projects, which in turn, can reduce construction, operation and maintenance costs.
EPA Region 2 has assembled a team of experts -- known as the Green Team -- that helps developers incorporate more sustainable construction, operation and maintenance practices into their projects through voluntary agreements called memorandums of understanding (MOU’s).
The Green Team tailors information for each project on the technologies and practices that can help project sponsors:
- Improve energy and water efficiency
- Increase recycling and reduce waste
- Incorporate the use of clean vehicles and fuels
- Use environmentally–friendly building materials, maintenance products and landscaping practices
- Save Money
Since 2006, the Green Team has signed agreements with local professional sports teams, major real estate firms and developers, and colleges and universities to reduce the environmental impacts of their buildings and projects. So far, our partners include:
- DestinyUSA
- New York Mets
- Montclair State University
- St. John’s University
- Cushman and Wakefield
- Monmouth University
Future MOUs are projected with two professional sports teams and a health care system encompassing 13 hospitals. If you contemplate a major development in the Region 2 area (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands) and would like information on how to do this in a "green" way, please contact us at GreenTeam.Region2@epa.gov.
