New York City

Announced by Mayor Bloomberg on Earth Day 2009, New York City's Greener, Greater Buildings Plan (GGBP) was hailed as one of the nation's most ambitious efforts to reduce energy waste in buildings by city officials, environmental groups and elected officials. The New York City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass the legislation on Dec. 9, 2009. Roughly 80 percent of New York City's carbon footprint comes from buildings' operations, and 85 percent of existing buildings today will still be in use by the year 2030. Thus, the GGBP was a primary focus of the Mayor's PlaNYC initiative to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. According to city estimates, the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan will create more than 10,000 jobs in the building and construction sectors, and save consumers $700 million each year in energy costs. It is projected to trim New York City's emissions by nearly 5 percent, the largest projected reduction from any PlaNYC program. The Greener, Greater Buildings Plan is comprised of four energy efficiency bills requiring the benchmarking and public disclosure of building energy performance and water consumption; periodic energy audits and building "tune-ups" known as retro commissioning; lighting upgrades; the sub metering of large tenant spaces; and improvements to the city’s building energy code. The package also includes new government initiatives on green workforce development and retrofit financing. The rating and disclosure provision of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan requires annual ENERGY STAR benchmarking and public disclosure for city buildings as well as large commercial and multifamily buildings. Benchmarking information will be reported through Energy Star Portfolio Manager in the form of a Compliance Report (pdf below) that is filed with the NYC Department of Finance. The report includes a building's energy use intensity (EUI), ENERGY STAR rating and water use for multiple years. Utilities are encouraged to automatically upload utility bills into ENERGY STAR to assist in the data entry process. In the public disclosure process, all of this information is posted to an online database administered by the city.

In October 2016, the New York City Council passed Int. 1163, which extends benchmarking requirements to commercial and multifamily buildings greater than 25,000 square feet. Mid sized buildings between 25,000 and 50,000 square feet are not required to submit benchmarking reports until their utilities implement automatic upload of energy consumption data to Portfolio Manager, which is expected to occur in 2018.

The Council also passed Int. 1160 which lowers the compliance threshold from 10,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet for commercial tenant spaces that must be submetered in covered buildings. 

Finally Int. 1165 extends the lighting upgrade requirements to common spaces in multifamily buildings like hallways and laundry rooms though dwelling units remain exempt.