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Heat and Energy Efficiency News

New York City sets sights on 30% energy cuts

All privately-owned buildings above 50,000 square feet in size will need to be benchmarked by 2013

The city of New York has assessed the energy consumption of 2,790 City buildings to provide a baseline as it seeks to cut City Government energy consumption by 30% before 2017.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the completion of the energy set a benchmark for every City-owned building over 10,000 square feet, in one of the largest benchmark programs ever undertaken.

The achievement was part of New York’s Greener Greater Buildings Plan, passed by the City Council and signed into law by the Mayor last year.

As well as City buildings, the Plan requires all privately-owned buildings above 50,000 square feet in size to have their energy consumption levels benchmarked by May 1, 2011.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and benchmarking the City’s buildings lets us determine where energy costs can be reduced,” explained Mayor Bloomberg.

“Understanding the consumption across the City’s portfolio is a critical component of meeting our goal of reducing City government carbon emissions 30 percent by 2017. As the largest building owner in the country’s largest city, we can serve as a model for all building owners—particularly those required to benchmark next year,” added the Mayor.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking has been carried out since May 2009 by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), along with 28 different City agencies, using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool.

As the largest building owner in the country’s largest city, we can serve as a model for all building owners” - Mayor Michael Bloomberg

Buildings ranging from libraries, police stations and schools to courthouses, health centers and government offices had data recorded including electricity, gas, steam and fuel oil consumption.

To meet the 30% energy reduction target by 2017, the City is carrying out a retrofit program, and has already completed 84 improvement projects, with 145 in the pipeline.

The City must produce 1.68 million fewer metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) annually versus 2006 levels in order to hit the target.