by Shane Henson — October 5, 2012—Marking the beginning of a new era of transparency around energy use in buildings, New York City has publicly posted its 2011 energy benchmarking results for 2,065 large commercial properties, which together cover more than 530 million square feet.
This is the first time that any U.S. city, state, or county has disclosed private-sector building energy data from a mandatory benchmarking policy, notes the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), a nonprofit dedicated to promoting energy efficiency, green building, and environmental protection in the United States and abroad. IMT says it is also the largest-ever publication of metered energy performance data from buildings in a single city, and will offer crucial real estate and energy information to New Yorkers as well as investors.
Under New York City’s Local Law 84, all privately owned properties with individual buildings over 50,000 square feet or with multiple buildings with a combined square footage over 100,000 square feet must annually measure and report their energy and water use.
The released benchmarking data can be used to assess where cost-effective building improvements can be made and to allow the market to find those opportunities. And since New York City’s benchmarking requirement is annual, the city and the market will be able to reward buildings that improve their performance year on year. This is important given that energy use in buildings is responsible for roughly 75 percent of New York City’s emissions, city officials say.
The benchmarking data also enables the city to analyze how building energy use varies with building age, location, size, fuel mix, and an assortment of other factors.
