Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Research has incessantly shown that buildings remain the largest consumers of energy and water. The need to increase energy and water efficiency of the buildings was one of the factors that provided an impetus for the formulation of several green building rating systems (like LEED and GreenGlobes), even organizations like the US EPA, and DOE. Cities like New York City are at the forefront of the sustainability movement and have continuously displayed commitment towards achieving higher standards of energy efficiency in the building sector. One such step demonstrating NYC’s promise towards sustainable development is NYC’s Benchmarking Law or Local Law 84, which was formulated and adopted in 2009 under it’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan. This law requires private buildings of size more than 25,000 sqft and public buildings over 10,000 sqft to record and share their annual energy and water consumption data with the city. This study leverages the publicly available data collected through LL84 to demonstrate how the environmental performance of buildings has changed over the years. The research shows how newer buildings in the borough of Manhattan are performing compared to the building structures built at the dawn of twentieth century. The data is analyzed using both inferential and descriptive statistics to show how adopting green rating systems and implementing sustainability laws into the building design and construction practices have affected the efficiency of buildings in New York City. NYC’s initiatives will act as a model for the existing as well as future cosmopolitan cities in the world.