“Greening” Existing Buildings Works Toward Mayor’s Proposal

Daniel Avery is Sustainability and Climate Change Program Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.

On Earth Day last month, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced major new legislative proposals to increase energy efficiency in existing buildings. The measures, some of which will no doubt prove controversial (and, perhaps in some cases, difficult politically to get through), are a response to the reality of reducing emissions in a densely urban setting.

As perhaps you noticed the last time you strolled around your city block (or any city block), there are buildings everywhere, and collectively they contribute the vast majority—about 80 percent—of New York City’s greenhouse gases. In addition, of the buildings that will be standing in 2030, the date by which the Mayor’s PlaNYC 2030 envisions a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases from 2005 levels, 90 percent have already been built. This is why Rohit Aggarwala, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, said to The New York Times regarding the proposed legislation: “Existing buildings are in fact the nut that must be cracked if we are ever going to make a dent on the demand side in terms of energy.”

In terms of buildings, The New York Botanical Garden is much like the city: We have a lot of buildings of many different ages performing an astonishing number of different tasks. We represent, in short, a microcosm of the City’s challenge to reduce building-related emissions. And over the years we have been quietly going at this problem. Such efforts are not as visible or as easy to explain as new green buildings (if you find the list below exciting, you’re officially a policy nerd), but in many ways they are more challenging and more important. read more »