On Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Mayor Bloomberg, New York City Council Speaker Quinn, and members of City Council announced the “Greener, Greater Buildings” initiative. This ambitious initiative includes four separate pieces of legislation all aimed at making buildings more energy efficient. New Yorkers spend a total of $15 billion to fuel our buildings. And buildings are responsible for nearly 80% of the City’s greenhouse gas emissions, the primary contributor to climate change.

Given the NYC Apollo Alliance’s commitment to tackling climate change and creating good, green-collar jobs, we recognize the tremendous importance of the legislative package and applaud the bill sponsors. However, right now, the legislative package does not include job standards, protections for affordable housing tenants, or effective enforcement mechanisms.

Click here to take action and tell Speaker Quinn to amend the legislation to include job standards, protections for affordable housing tenants, and enforcement mechanisms.

Why job standards?

• The legislation has the potential to create thousands of jobs for New Yorkers. Adding adequate job standards will ensure that the work is done by people who have been well trained and help make sure that the jobs that are created are good jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage and offer career pathways.

The first public hearing is Friday, June 19th, at 10am in the City Council Chambers. Please come to show your support for these amendments and let us know if you would also like to testify. Together, we can make New York City greener and greater.

In solidarity,
Joanne Derwin
Executive Director
Urban Agenda, convener of the NYC Apollo Alliance

In brief, the four bills are:

• Intro 0967 - Requires retro-commission and retrofitting (i.e. revising operations and maintenance operations or re-fitting existing elements for greater energy efficiency) for buildings 50,000 square feet or greater.

• Intro 0476-A - Requires buildings 50,000 square feet or greater and city buildings 10,000 square feet or greater to “benchmark” their energy use annually. Benchmarking compares the energy use and water use of buildings with other buildings of comparable size and use.

• Intro 0973 - Requires that the lighting systems of buildings 50,000 square feet or greater be upgraded to meet the minimum requirements of the NYC Energy Conservation Code by no later than Dec. 31, 2022.

• Intro 0564-A - Amends the city’s administrative code to establish a New York City energy code. The law is an administrative act that closes a previous loophole that only applied the state energy code when an alteration on a building covered at least 50 percent of a building’s system or subsystem. Closing the loop hole allows the city to adopt a more stringent energy code than the state.