De Blasio pushing green building programs

UPDATED, 2:13 p.m., Sept. 28: A “retrofit accelerator” may sound like a spare part on a spaceship, but it’s actually a new city program designed to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Continuing his “One City Built to Last” environmental push, Mayor Bill de Blasio will roll out a pair of new city initiatives to help and advise building owners on cutting greenhouse emissions at their properties.

The mayor will announce a “retrofit accelerator,” a group of advisors available free of charge for property owners hoping to go green.The Building Energy Exchange, a nonprofit group, will act as the central hub of the group, Politico reported.

The second program is an expansion of the city’s carbon challenge, which started in 2007. A total of 40 city institutions have already pledged to reduce emissions by 30 percent over the next 10 years, including Barnard College, Bloomberg LP, Deutsche Bank and Google. Now, 700 private family buildings will join them.

The mayor has said his goal is to cut building emissions by about one million metric tons by retrofitting about 1,000 buildings per year by 2025, a reduction equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road. [Politico] – Ariel Stulberg