Ask any city building owner or manager in new York City and they’ll likely agree that maximizing efficiency can save money. Energy efficiency can be a quick way for landlords to realize savings through tax breaks or through the added interest from tenants who wish to live in an efficient, responsible building.
The problem is Read More
The city is set to release a long-awaited report that will detail energy consumption in both commercial and residential buildings, and those involved in drafting the study said it will contain some shocking conclusions—namely, that new office buildings may not be as efficient as developers claim.
“New office buildings, in some cases, are not as efficient as a lot of people might think,” Constantine Kontokosta, director of the Center for the Sustainable Built Environment at New York University, told The Commercial Observer. Read More
On the heels of Brookfield Office Properties’ announcement that it was setting up two new Electric Vehicle charging stations inside One World Financial Center, The Commercial Observer checked in with Laura Longsworth, the company’s national parking czar, on its so-called Green Garage initiative.
“Brookfield has this commitment to sustainability,” said Ms. Longsworth, vice president of national parking operations, from her office in Denver, Colorado.
“We tried to think of ways to expand that program through our properties, and garages seemed like a logical choice,” she added. Read More
In the spring, the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability will release data for the first time revealing energy consumption in office buildings in the city.
By making such figures available to the public, Mr. Bloomberg hopes to essentially do to building owners what he has done with national food chains: incentivize them—or shame them, depending on your perspective—into significantly reducing their energy consumption.
“A customer will go into a restaurant now and they’ll say to themselves, ‘maybe I won’t have that doughnut that has 500 calories’,” said Constantine Kontokosta, a professor at New York University and director of its Center for The Sustainable Built Environment, a working group that is assisting the city with its analysis and release of the electrical consumption data.
“On the producer side, you have companies like Starbucks who are also responding to the disclosure, rearranging their offerings so they no longer have 1,000 calorie cupcakes but healthier fare.” Read More
