Choosing transit is one small way to help the planet this Earth Week

This Earth Week, BART is celebrating how choosing transit is an impactful action people can take for the environment.

From improving air quality to easing traffic and lowering transportation costs, transit is a powerful climate solution already built into the Bay Area ecosystem. As California continues to pursue some of the most ambitious climate goals in the country, public transit will continue to play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting congestion, and preserving this beautiful region for generations to come.

To celebrate Earth Week and BART's overall regional impact, BART is unveiling an updated Transit Savescampaign. First launched in 2023, Transit Saves uses impactful visuals to highlight the environmental, financial, and societal benefits of riding transit. Look for the new art, created by BART Marketing's Jay Sathe, as you travel about the BART System or check it out in the slideshow above.

The campaign underscores a simple idea: small decisions, like taking the train instead of driving, add up to meaningful impacts for the climate, public health, and household budgets.

Some of the sustainability insights from the campaign include:

• Every day, BART saves 61,000 gallons of gas from being burned.
• Taking BART somewhere ten times emits less CO2 than driving to the same place just once.
• Without BART we'd have to plant a San Francisco-sized forest every two years to offset the extra CO2.

Sustainability is a core value at BART, shaping how the agency plans, builds, and operates the system. As emphasized in BART's 2024 Sustainability Report, the agency's work goes beyond reducing emissions. It is about delivering reliable transit while building a system that is resilient to climate change and responsive to the communities it serves.

"I feel a profound responsibility to the generations that follow me," wrote BART General Manager Bob Powers in the 2024 report. "They, too, deserve a world that provides them with the resources they need to thrive. The concept of sustainability should serve as a reminder that we are on this planet only briefly, yet the actions we take today will have cascading effects into the future."

Through its new Sustainability Action Plan for 2026 to 2035, BART is advancing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency, conserve water, and invest in infrastructure that can withstand future climate impacts. These initiatives support both regional and statewide goals while reinforcing BART's role as the backbone of a more sustainable Bay Area.

Learn more about BART's sustainability programs and initiatives at bart.gov/sustainability.