Attention to building owners over 50,000 s/f

In a pioneering effort to reduce energy consumption of N.Y.C. buildings, the Bloomberg administration and the N.Y.C. Council created the Greener, Greater Building Plan. Under the new Local Law 84, it is now mandatory for owners to annually benchmark energy and water usage for commercial and residential buildings over 50,000 s/f. All qualifying buildings must file their first benchmarking report no later than May 1 and annually thereafter. Owners must request required information from tenants by January 31 and tenants must respond by February 15. If you haven't started paying attention to these new requirements...now is the time. There is a very specific set of information required for collection by owners including base building and tenant energy usage, space type, gross square footage, hours of operation, number of computers, etc. It is best to request whole building energy data from your utility provider to avoid the requirement to collect energy bills from each individual commercial tenant. Benchmarking of water use is only necessary if the building has automatic meter reading equipment from the Department of Environmental Protection in place for the previous calendar year. Depending on your building's size and type, obtaining this information could be time-consuming. It probably makes sense, especially this first year when the exact requirements are still under development, to hire a firm with benchmarking expertise. A company like e4, inc. can manage the LL84 requirements and simultaneously help you save money and make your building more competitive. Starting next year, the benchmarking reports will be made publicly available. The city's goal is to encourage owners to start paying attention to energy use in 2011 and have a year to improve building performance before the data is made public. e4, inc. would love to help. Don't wait until the last minute! Pamela Lippe is the president of e4, inc., New York, N.Y.