Carbon emissions from some of the city’s largest buildings has dropped dramatically, according to a new report.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, in partnership with Urban Green Council and NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress, released the Energy and Water Use 2014 & 2015 Report which shows that, between 2010 and 2015, greenhouse gas emissions from 4,200 regularly benchmarked properties dropped by 14 percent, while energy use decreased 10 percent.
“This new analysis demonstrates that we can continue to achieve substantial reductions in emissions from the largest source in our city, our buildings, and keep New York City on-track toward our 80×50 target,” said Mayor de Blasio.
“This sets the stage for even more dramatic reductions that will be achieved through mandatory retrofits for the largest, most polluting buildings across the five boroughs. When Trump pulled out of the Paris Agreement, we knew we had to accelerate our local climate actions, and that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Russell Unger, Executive Director of Urban Green Council, added, “The report highlights encouraging improvements, and the findings give us direction on how to move further to reduce carbon and deliver on the City’s 80×50 goals.”
The report is part of a nearly decade-long effort to evaluate and manage energy use in buildings citywide, which contribute nearly 70 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Seven years ago, the City launched an initiative to determine how much energy its largest buildings use. Since then, Local Law 84 of 2009 (LL84) requires owners and managers of buildings that occupy at least 50,000 s/f to report the amount of energy and water these buildings use each year. This information can be used to compare the buildings’ energy performance against that of similar buildings. This process of reporting and comparison, known as benchmarking, has since been adopted by many major cities.
