Environmental stewardship is a Council priority

Greenhouse gases, impaired waters, threats to vital natural areas – our region faces many environmental challenges. At the Metropolitan Council, we are doing our best to address these challenges and help safeguard our environment.

These efforts include:

• Taking delivery of 67 hybrid electric buses, the first of 172 we will add to Metro Transit’s fleet over the next several years, and using biodiesel fuel to power all of our standard buses.

• Cutting the amount of phosphorus in our treated wastewater by more than half and pursing aggressive efforts to conserve energy in our treatment system.

• Conducting research with the University of Minnesota into the feasibility of growing algae in wastewater to create a new, renewable fuel.

• Using our Livable Communities grants to fund projects that reclaim contaminated lands and promote transit-supportive developments – many of which have “green” features.

• Encouraging communities to integrate the protection of vital natural areas into every land-use decision.

Last year, we also established a Regional Parks Foundation to seek contributions from private sources and accelerate the acquisition of land needed for our outstanding system of regional parks and trails.

However, nothing we do will be more important that continuing to expand transit ridership and ride-sharing.  In 2008, our regional transit system provided nearly 95 million rides, an increase of 6.5% over 2007.

The benefit for our environment? The average Twin Cities commuter who drives alone to work puts 2.6 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year. Sharing a ride – even a few times a week – can make a ton of difference.

Peter Bell

February 2009