MARTA

With more than half a million people taking MARTA every weekday, it's important for us to put sustainability at the forefront of everything we do. And as Atlanta's official public transit authority, we have the opportunity to lead the way in making public transportation a truly sustainable part of our city.

Here's how we're making a difference:

We put fewer cars on the road — Every MARTA bus keeps at least 20 cars off the road, cutting down on the traffic congestion and decreasing the amount of carbon emissions.

We’ve gone natural — The vast majority of our bus fuel runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), a non-corrosive gas that helps improve Atlanta’s air quality.
We believe in choice — Riding MARTA is sustainable, and there’s more than one way to ride. With buses and trains, park-and-ride lots and rider incentives, our riders have a say in where they go and how they get there.
We partner regionally — MARTA serves as the backbone of a growing transit network spanning Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett. This means more opportunities for riders to travel throughout Atlanta without taking their cars along for the trip.

View our 2019 MARTA Sustainability Report here.

Sustainability Recognition

American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Accreditation
We received APTA’s Silver Level Accreditation in March 2018 for our sustainability efforts, which is now formally recognized on APTA’s Sustainability Signatories website and will be recognized at APTA’s upcoming meetings in 2018.

The press release specifically noted our our major reduction in water usage as a result of our improved bus and train wash water recycling systems. It also noted the community programs we’ve been working on including the MARTA Fresh Markets throughout our rail stations and the Five Points public gardens and soccer fields. Additionally, our promotion of multimodal transit around Atlanta beyond MARTA services by partnering with the City of Atlanta in the Bike Share program was included. Our bike fix-it stations and bike racks have been installed at all rail stations and ensure that MARTA rail and buses allow easy bike transport with bike racks and stabilizing areas.

Clean Cities Lifetime Appreciation Award
In 2009, we received the Clean Cities Lifetime Appreciation Award from the United States Department of Energy. The award was for our partnership with the City of Atlanta to significantly reduce petroleum consumption in the transportation sector.

A big part of this recognition came from our switch to 411 CNG buses. These buses save more than 7 million gallons of petroleum every year.

Laredo Bus Canopy PV Installation
On Sept. 21, 2009, we successfully secured the largest federal Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Grant in the country. The full-funding grant provided $10.8 million to install shade structures with an array 4,888 energy-efficient solar panels.

The array is located at our Laredo Bus Facility in Decatur and is the largest solar PV installation in Georgia, generating more than 1.2MW of sustainable power. It houses roughly 220 buses and makes use of LED lighting to accommodate the facility's 24/7 operational needs.

Our Initiatives

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
We completed our Carbon Footprint Report for calendar year 2012, seeing a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 36,197 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the 2008 report.

Environmentally Friendly Buses
Every bus in our fleet uses clean fuel technology — split between buses using clean diesel and buses running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Buses running on compressed natural gas reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 95 percent.

MARTA-Wide Recycling
In 2010, we kicked off a recycling program in our Headquarters and Annex Facilities. The program went on to keep 36 tons of recycling materials out of landfills in the first year alone. In 2012, we expanded the initiative to the entire MARTA system. The result? An average of 300 tons of recycling materials kept from landfills every year.

Hand Dryers
We replaced paper towels with high-efficiency, low-energy hand dryers throughout our entire agency — saving $160K each year.

Motion-Detecting Sensor Light Switches
We switched to motion-detecting sensor light switches in multipurpose rooms with infrequent use. We broke even on energy savings within three months of installation.

LEED Design Principles
We've incorporated LEED design principles into the construction of all our new MARTA facilities and have made renovations to existing properties to help them meet LEED standards. These projects include our Brady Facility, our Chamblee Facility and our completed Buckhead MARTA station.

Water Filling Stations
We installed water filling stations at more than 22 operating facilities across MARTA and give every MARTA employee a reusable water bottle. This initiative aims to cut down the use of plastic bottles. To date, we've kept more than 141,555 plastic bottles out of landfills.

Water Reclamation
We reclaim 90 percent of the water we use every day. This includes the 200 gallons used to wash a single bus and the 1,500 gallons used to wash a six-car train. Through water reclamation, we treat and reuse the same water to wash our vehicles over and over again.

Moving Foward

Pushing Our Recycling Efforts Further
The recycling program has been in place since 2012, and we're taking steps to continue improving it. This includes:

Increasing training available to personnel in all of our facilities
Exploring the possibility of wood and baled cardboard recycling
Updating our Facility Scorecard program in order to hold our facilities to a higher standard.

Kicking off Atlanta's Bike Share Initiative
We're partnering with the City of Atlanta as it launches the Atlanta Bike Share. These bike share stations will operate near our MARTA stations, making car-free travel a possibility for people throughout the city.

Continuing Our LEED Design Efforts
We achieved LEED accreditation for our Buckhead MARTA station in January 2016, and we plan to complete our future projects with LEED design principles at the forefront.

Publishing MARTA's First Internal Sustainability Report
Releasing this report will help us set a precedent and establish a benchmark for our MARTA-wide sustainability efforts. It will serve both as a resource and a statement of our commitment to making our practices as sustainable as possible.

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