Over the past few months New York City has proposed a number of new bills that will greatly impact existing and new buildings across the city. For more information about how these will affect your properties, contact your CodeGreen account manager.
NYC Proposes New “Stretch Energy Code” for New Buildings and Major Renovations
Intro 1629A requires periodic submissions to the Council to create a more stringent NYC Energy Conservation Code, and that new buildings and major alterations be designed and constructed as low energy intensity structures beginning in 2025. For office and residential buildings, low energy intensity buildings are defined as meeting: 1) 30% below the median source Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of buildings with similar uses or 30% below ASHRAE 90.1-2013; 2) a source EUI of 38 kBTU/year/square foot for new buildings, and a source EUI of 42 kBTU/year/square foot for major alterations; or 3) an alternative low energy intensity target adopted into the NYC Charter. See REBNY’s Official Testimony on Int 1629 from June. This bill may be voted on before the end of 2017.
NYC Proposal to Require Posting Energy Grades on Buildings and at Point of Sale or Lease
In June 2017 the NYC Council introduced Intro 1632A – Building Energy Grades, that will require buildings over 25,000sf to post an “Energy Efficiency Grade” on their building beginning May 1, 2018. The Energy Efficiency Grade will be letter grades from A-F based on energy use intensity or using the EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager Tool. The bill also will require that beginning July 1, 2018 an “Energy Asset Score”, an assessment of the efficiency of building HVAC and envelope (independent of energy consumption), be disclosed at time of sale or lease of all or part of the building. See REBNY’s OfficialTestimony on Int 1632 from June. This bill may be voted on before the end of 2017.
NYC Proposes Fossil Fuel Caps for Large Buildings and Timeline for Whole Building Energy Caps
On October 31st, 2017 NYC City Council introduced Intro 1745, which will set caps for fossil fuel use for buildings over 25,000 square feet that will go into effect by 2030 and set whole-building energy use caps in 2019 also to go into effect in 2030. According to the bill, commercial buildings will be limited to 35 kbtu/sf per year and multifamily 55 kbtu/sf per year, impacting an estimated 12,000 properties across the city with fines for non-compliance reaching 10’s of thousands of dollars. We do not agree with using a fixed kbtu per square foot cap for each building type, considering the broad variety of uses and operating schedules within each building typology. We are watching the progress of this bill very closely and are working with industry groups to evaluate alternative approaches to the proposed kbtu/sf metric. We will let our readers know as soon as we learn more. It goes without saying that if this bill passes, many buildings that rely on gas or oil for heat will have to perform major upgrades to meet these requirements.
REMINDER: Buildings over 25,000sf must submit for LL84 Benchmarking by May 1, 2018
NYC’s Local Law 84 has been expanded to include buildings over 25,000sf. Owners of buildings over 25,000sf must perform the Energy Star benchmark using the EPA Portfolio Manager Tool covering energy use for the 2017 calendar year and submit to the NYC Dept of Buildings by May 1, 2018. Please let us know if you have buildings that will be covered by this law.
