New Mets stadium will be "green"

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | karla.schuster@newsday.com

March 13, 2008

Article tools

E-mail

Share
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Fark
- Google
- Newsvine
- Reddit
- Yahoo

The baseball diamond won't be the only thing that's "green" at the new Mets stadium, which will be built and equipped with a variety of environmentally conscious features, team, city and federal officials announced Thursday.

Citi Field, which is rising next door to Shea Stadium in Flushing and will open in 2009, is being built with recycled steel, and cement made with coal combustion products, which reduces carbon emissions. The ballpark will use energy-efficient lights and feature bathrooms with water conservation measures such as automatic hands-free faucets and automatic flush toilets and waterless urinals. Also, The team's new administration building will have a "green" roof.

Jeff Wilpon, the team's chief operating officer, said although some of the measures may cost more up front, they will save money over the long haul. "It was important to us to do this in an environmentally-friendly way," Wilpon said of the new ballpark.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose PlaNYC environmental blueprint calls for a 30 percent reduction in the city's carbon emissions over the next two decades, said Citi Field will be the centerpiece of the city's plans to redevelop the Willets Point area surrounding the ballpark. The industrial triangle known as Willets Point will require significant environmental cleanup before the city's plans can proceed.

"Citi Field will have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than Shea Stadium did," the mayor said at a news conference at Shea yesterday morning, "and it is a key element in one of the most significant environmental reclamations in the city."

Would you recommend this?

Rate it: