NYC landlords may soon be required to post “energy grades”

Prepare to get your first report card in years

(Credit: amboo who?/ Flickr, back image; Pixabay)
(Credit: amboo who?/ Flickr, back image; Pixabay)

Grades aren’t just for report cards or restaurants anymore — they are on track to being assigned to New York’s resi and commercial landlords too, thanks to a new bill winding its way through City Council.

The bill, if passed, will require any New York City commercial or residential building over 25,000 square feet in size to post their energy efficiency grade — ranging from A to F — near public entrances.

Private building owners whose properties fall under the would-be-laws requirements will need to enter performance metrics measuring energy usage into a public database Architect’s Newspaper reports. The database will then give them a score, or ‘energy grade’ that they will be required to post.

The bill’s author, Council member Dan Garodnick, views the bill as part of the Big Apple’s effort to meet international standards of sustainability.

“As the federal government shirks its stewardship of our environment, it is up to cities to step in,” Garodnick told the Architect’s Newspaper.

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As of now, the city collects energy usage information about public buildings and private buildings over 50,000 square feet; the bill would affect about 20,000 structures should Mayor Bill de Blasio sign it into law — City Council passed the bill on December 19 — though buildings owners won’t have to display their grades by law until 2020.

Though posting energy grades, much like NYC’s restaurants are required to do, may seem trivial, the director of New York Clean Energy Environmental Defense Fund sees it as progress.

“Requiring large buildings to post their energy efficiency grades is a natural next step in the evolution of the city’s energy policies,” director Rory Christian said in a statement.

[Architect’s Newspaper] — Erin Hudson