Buildings dominate New York City's carbon footprint. Approximately 75 percent of New York City's carbon
emissions stem from energy used in buildings, and today's existing buildings will make up 85 percent of all real estate in
2030.
Therefore, increasing the energy efficiency
of the city's existing buildings has been, and will continue to be, a central PlaNYC focus. Indeed, the full effects of the
City's energy efficiency efforts launched to date are expected to reduce annual citywide greenhouse gas emissions by 4.5 million
metric tons of CO2e by 2030, which is equivalent to nearly 7.5 percent of citywide 2005 baseline emissions. To address the
critical area of energy use in existing buildings, the City has enacted a set of efficiency requirements for existing private
and public sector buildings. In December 2009, Mayor Bloomberg signed the four legislative components of the Greener, Greater
Buildings Plan, the most comprehensive set of efficiency laws in the nation. Together these laws remove a loophole in the
energy code to ensure that it applies to all construction projects, require annual energy efficiency benchmarking that will
be disclosed to the public, and mandate a set of cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades and evaluations of the city's largest
buildings, both public and private.
