Former President Bill Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Tony Malkin of the Empire State Building Company, and the energy and construction partners involved in the retrofits gathered at the Empire State Building to announce the initiative on Monday. The project is part of Clinton’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) and is in line with Bloomberg’s plan to make the city sustainable by 2030.
A package of eight recommended projects will together reduce the office tower’s energy use by 38 percent, lower its annual energy cost by $4.4 million, and decrease its carbon emissions by 105 metric tons. The installations will include insulation and lighting, triple-glazing all of the building’s 6,500 windows so that they block heat-inducing sunlight, and putting in place a Web-based monitoring system that allows tenants to take tally of their own energy consumption. The management system will allow tenants and the building superintendent to make informed decisions about how to space their space.
The non-profit Rocky Mountain Institute is providing the environmental consulting for the project; Johnson Controls Inc. the energy controls, and Jones Lang LaSalle the property management.
Globally, cities produce 70 percent of all greenhouse gases but take up 2 to 3 percent of the earth’s landmass. In turn, the built environment accounts for 70 percent of the greenhouse gases cities produce.
