Fully 79 percent of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions come from existing buildings. “Greening” this infrastructure through a mixture of energy audits and retrofits must be an essential component of the city’s efforts to combat climate change. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration and the City Council are working on a package of legislation that will begin to address this problem. We anticipate that this package of bills will call for a comprehensive program to green New York’s significant existing infrastructure and, by consequence, create meaningful “green collar” employment.

We call on the City Council to swiftly pass a set of bills that will:

• Mandate retrofits and audits for certain large properties.
• Create a “benchmarking” system that will record the energy usage of buildings and make this data widely available and easily accessible.
• Require disclosure of energy usage at the point of sale for residential units.

• Provisions for adequate public participation and awareness.
• Funding for a program that would encourage owners of rental buildings to upgrade their properties.
• An ongoing educational component that will assist individuals and property owners who are interested in reducing their carbon footprints.
• Create a city office to encourage private homeowners to “green” their properties.

In addition to these already extensive efforts, the city, working with the U.S. Green Building Council, has convened a panel of experts to revise the building code in order to encourage green development. We hope the Council swiftly and seriously considers the panel’s recommendations.

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