by: Jeremy Edmunds P.E. Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: Retrofitting Green: Why It Makes (Dollars and) Sense!
Location: McGraw Hill Auditorium, 06.28.07
Speakers: Rohit Aggarwala, Ph.D. — Director, Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability; Patrick Conti — Vice President of Facilities, New York Mercantile Exchange; Craig Kneeland — Senior Project Manager, Green Building Program, NY State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA); Joseph Olgiati — Director of Engineering, Cushman & Wakefield; Thomas Scarola — Director of Engineering, Tishman Speyer Properties; Sylvia Smith, AIA, LEED AP — Principal, FXFOWLE Architects; Russell Unger — Executive Director, U.S. Green Building Council, NY Chapter
Moderator: Michael K. De Chiara, Esq. — Partner, Zetlin & De Chiara
Introduction: John Parkinson — Executive Director, Urban Land Institute (ULI) NY District Council
Organizers: Zetlin & De Chiara; ULI; USGBC; New York Construction magazine
NYMEX retrofitted its headquarters to achieve LEED-EB certification.
Courtesy Forest City Ratner Companies (fcrc.com)
Approximately 85% of the buildings that will exist in NYC in 2030 exist today devouring over 70% of the total energy consumed, according to Rohit Aggarwala, Ph.D., director of the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability. Although LEED for Existing Buildings, LEED-EB, has not gained market traction the way LEED for new construction has, it warrants a larger share of attention, especially in highly-developed regions like NYC. Michael De Chiara, Esq., partner at Zetlin & De Chiara, moderated a discussion on the strategies and challenges attendant to greening existing buildings — a must if we are to meet the carbon targets set forth in Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030.
As the world’s largest energy futures marketplace, LEED certification was more of a corporate mandate than a money saver for the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) headquarters. Patrick Conti, vice president of facilities at NYMEX, and Joseph Olgiati, director of engineering at Cushman & Wakefield, highlighted the $600,000 retrofit of the building — NYC’s first LEED-EB certified project. Sustainable aspects included upgrading light fixtures, composting food waste from the cafeteria, and the use of non-toxic cleaning supplies.
Building maintenance subsequent to the retrofit is critical for sustaining its benefits, and re-commissioning the building systems periodically is required for certification, stated Sylvia Smith, AIA, LEED AP, principal at FXFOWLE Architects. As the lone architect on the panel, she aptly described her role in advancing green building as that of a salesperson and process facilitator. The majority of the tactics are engineering and maintenance based.
The New York government has begun to implement programs to encourage the greening existing buildings. NYC has proposed a $2.4 billion fund, raised through an increase to the System Benefits Charges already levied on consumers, to be administered by a yet-to-be-created intra-governmental authority. This fund will help finance the greening of existing buildings by partially offsetting the initial costs, thus reducing the building’s payback period to less than five years. The NY State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) is currently assisting building owners in Con Edison service areas with revenue from the existing System Benefits Charges, largely in the form of design assistance programs, energy audit subsidies, and low interest loans.
The discussion closed with consensus that the way to achieve certification within a five-year payback period is to start with little things, like motion and carbon dioxide sensors, not flashy wind turbines and solar “gizmos.” To mainstream, retrofitting must make sense financially. With help from Albany, a wave of green retrofits seems like a welcome certainty for NYC.
Jeremy Edmunds, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, is a sustainability advisor.