[See the full NYC press release]
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today released the first benchmarking report analyzing a year of energy and water use for New York City’s largest buildings. This information is the first step in increasing knowledge about buildings’ energy use and shows property owners where they may have opportunities to save energy and money by making their buildings more efficient. The report is required under Local Law 84 of 2009, which mandates that all privately-owned properties with individual buildings over 50,000 square feet or multiple buildings with a combined square footage over 100,000 square feet annually measure and report their energy and water use.
While New York City’s buildings are generally less energy intensive than the national average; there is a significant opportunity to improve the energy performance of large buildings, which is essential to achieving the City’s greenhouse gas reduction goal established in Mayor Bloomberg’s comprehensive sustainability plan, PlaNYC. The benchmarking report shows that energy use varies greatly between property types, uses, and locations, with some properties using three to five times more energy per square foot than buildings with similar uses. Though many factors are at play, newer office buildings in New York City tend to use more energy per square foot than older ones.
“Buildings account for 75 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in New York City, yet many property owners and managers do not know they can be a part of the solution and save money by making their buildings more energy efficient,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This benchmarking report will help us understand where we can act most quickly to significantly reduce GHG emissions and achieve our PlaNYC goals.”
“This benchmarking law is a significant piece of our environment portfolio and is the largest effort in the country to measure energy and water usage,” said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “Buildings are one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and this information will lead to significant energy savings throughout our city. I want to thank the administration for their work on this issue and for helping make New York City even greener.”
STATEMENT OF CLIFF MAJERSIK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, IMT:
“This report collects insights from the biggest collection of measured energy efficiency ratings ever assembled for buildings from a single city. It provides a snapshot against which we can measure progress for an entire city. And when ratings for individual buildings are released, we’ll have a snapshot against which we can measure progress for more than a thousand individual buildings in New York City.
“The report also demonstrates how broad a range of energy efficiency can be found in outwardly similar buildings. It shows that some building owners and tenants are doing a great job of working together to manage their buildings and spaces, saving themselves energy and money.”