NYC's Greener, Greater Buildings Plan

In December 2009, New York City (NYC) passed what experts regard as the most sweeping commercial building energy-efficiency legislation in the country. Significantly, the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan obligates most facilities to undergo energy audits every 10 years and requires all commercial buildings with more than 50,000 square feet to annually benchmark and publicly report energy and water use. It also toughens energy-efficiency requirements for renovations and forces buildings to update lighting systems to more efficient technology. NYC isn’t the first jurisdiction to require buildings to benchmark energy use. California started the race in 2007, requiring benchmarking and limited disclosure beginning Jan. 1, 2010. But California only requires the information for the parties involved in a sale or lease of a facility. Washington, D.C. went further in 2008 by requiring phased-in public disclosure of energy use starting this year. NYC’s 2009 legislation took another big step, mandating full compliance years ahead of the D.C. legislation for a far greater swath of building types. Other jurisdictions are considering doing the same. On the heels of the NYC measure, Seattle passed its own energy-use benchmarking and disclosure law in January. As Seattle developed its benchmarking legislation, city officials kept tabs on what […]

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