Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Announcing the Re-Launch of the NYC Benchmarking Help Center!

Dear Friends of the CUNY Building Performance Lab,
We are excited to announce the re-launch of the NYC Benchmarking Help Center, a partnership of the NYC Mayor's Office of Sustainability (MOS) and the CUNY Institute for Urban Systems Building Performance Lab (CUNY BPL).
As the first of its kind in the nation, the Benchmarking Help Center originally ran from 2011-2013 through a partnership with CUNY BPL, MOS, the NYC Dept. of Buildings, NYSERDA, and the Institute for Market Transformation. The Help Center supported property owners in complying with Local Law 84 of 2009 (LL84), a legislative mandate requiring all buildings larger than 50,000 square feet to annually submit energy and water benchmarking reports. In its first two years the Help Center received over 2,000 calls and helped New York City achieve an impressive 75% first-year compliance rate.  

The re-launched Help Center is a free, one-stop shop for LL84 information and assistance, with dedicated full-time staff supported by CUNY interns, located at the Building Energy Exchange (BEEx) in downtown Manhattan.  If building owners have questions about deadlines, whether or not a property is covered, how to gather energy and water data, or how to use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® tool, the Help Center is available to assist.

The NYC Benchmarking Help Center can be reached at:
EMAIL: questions@benchmarkinghelpcenter.org
PHONE: 212-566-LL84 (212-566-5584)
WEB: 
www.nyc.gov/ll84helpcenter
The Help Center also supports the  NYC Energy and Water Retrofit Accelerator, which assists property owners with conducting energy audits and retro-commissioning to comply with Local Law 87, and implementing energy and water upgrades in their buildings.  Together, these two programs are direct building-owner engagement efforts of the City's One City: Built to Last plan, which aims at reducing New York City's buildings-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 30 percent by 2025 through initiatives that address GHG emissions from the city's building stock - the largest source of citywide emissions.  One City: Built To Last is in turn one facet of the City's larger overall One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City plan for 2050, which envisions how New York City will achieve goals in growth, sustainability, resiliency, and equity.
The Impact of Benchmarking:

Benchmarking energy and water usage is a key element of the City's Greener, Greater Buildings Program (GGBP), and is valuable for improving a building's operations by providing a clear picture of overall energy and water usage. Furthermore, the aggregated public data allows owners and managers to compare their usage to other buildings, while year-over-year comparisons of the data can help identify and prioritize energy saving opportunities and track progress.
Benchmarking and Beyond:
The Help Center's expanded capacity will focus on improving the quality of LL84 report submissions, assisting property owners who have had difficulty complying in previous years, and smoothing the way for properties that may need to conduct benchmarking in the future or want to utilize benchmarking to undertake energy efficiency measures.

No comments:

Post a Comment