Today, as she has done countless times over the last 35 years, actor Blythe Danner stood up for the environment. Not the newly-sexy environment, but the real, every day environment that affects you, me and everyone else, especially in a crowded urban place.
She attended a media event today in New York's Union Square where she helped Energy Vision - a national non-profit organization that studies and promotes the benefits of clean, renewable petroleum-free transportation fuels - unveil two new natural gas garbage trucks. She let her famous face be photographed next to the two beautifully detailed trucks - and one NYC Department of Sanitation natural gas sweeper - and she even sat in the cabs of both trucks, cameras clicking away.
Why? Because she knows that what really counts in environmental progress is everyday, down on the ground, incremental environmentalism and real commitment. It's a journey, a long, long path.
It turns out that garbage trucks are among the most polluting vehicles on the road. "The 6,000 diesel refuse and recycling trucks on NYC streets have been a major source of air pollution," said Joanna Underwood, Energy Vision's president. "But these trucks here today and the growing fleet of new natural gas trucks are blazing a 'path to the future.' Within a few years use of natural gas trucks could become the industry norm in New York City."
Because of just the 38 natural gas trucks put on the streets in the NY region as a result of the four initiatives that were highlighted at today's Union Square event, New Yorkers will be spared the health risks, involving asthma, other respiratory illnesses and cancers associated with more than 124 tons a year of airborne particulates (soot) and smog-forming nitrogen oxides. Were half of the diesel refuse collection and recycling trucks operating in New York City traded in for natural gas models "more than 16,000 tons of pollutants would be eliminated a year, while reliance on a clean domestic fuel would eliminate the need for 23 million gallons a year of petroleum-based diesel fuel, which is getting more expensive by the day and relies on imported oil." This is from Energy Vision's new report,
"Fueling a Greener Future: NYC Metropolitan Region Garbage Fleets Commit to Alternative Fuel," that was released at the press event.
One of the good results of the new focus on green is that there are companies that are sincerely looking for ways to capitalize on both the environmental green and monetary green. And they are finding it.
The two companies' trucks that were featured in today's event belong to private haulers -
Filco Carting Corporation and Metropolitan Paper Recycling. Their CEO's were both clearly proud to be part an important movement and are truly committed to making it work for their companies.
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