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Council Votes to Green Existing Buildings

NEW YORK CITY-Passage of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan occurs on the eve of Mayor Bloomberg's appearance at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

By Paul Bubny | Updated on December 10, 2009

NEW YORK CITY-A few days before Mayor Michael Bloomberg is scheduled to travel to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the City Council passed a package of bills which Bloomberg considers a pillar of his administration’s PlaNYC sustainability program. The Greener, Greater Buildings Plan is expected to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by nearly 5% by focusing on existing buildings. “While New York already has the lowest per capita carbon footprint of any major city in America, we recognize that every city must take action to fight climate change,” Bloomberg said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

Three of the four bills apply only to residential and commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet or more. Among other things, the GGBP creates a New York City energy conservation code and implements standards for building performance benchmarking, lighting retrofits and tenant submetering, and audit and retro-commissioning measures.

One major change in the legislation since it was introduced in 2007 is the elimination of a requirement that large building owners follow up their energy audits with mandatory retrofits. Additionally, owners may waive the audit requirement if they are Energy Star or LEED for Existing Buildings-certified.

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