Empire State Energy Program Saves $7.5 Million

NEW YORK — An energy efficiency program at the iconic Empire State Building has generated about $7.5 million in savings over the past three years.

In 2009, the Empire State Building, President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a comprehensive retrofit that aimed to reduce costs, increase real estate value and protect the environment. This year, the property beat its energy efficiency guarantee by 15.9 percent, saving $2.8 million. In 2011, the Empire State Building beat its year-one energy-efficiency guarantee by 5 percent, saving $2.4 million, and in year two it surpassed its guarantee by nearly 4 percent, saving $2.3 million.

When the energy-savings initiative was launched, Empire State Realty Trust and the Clinton Climate Initiative Cities program, an aligned partner of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, assembled a coalition of leading organizations focused on energy efficiency and sustainability. The team, comprised of the Empire State Building, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Johnson Controls (JCI), and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), developed the sustainability program. The core retrofit at the Empire State Building is complete, with the rest of the projects to be finished as new tenants build out high-performance workspaces. Once all tenant spaces are upgraded, the building is expected save at least $4.4 million a year and at least a 38 percent reduction of energy use.

“Five years into the retrofit of the Empire State Building, we have seen carbon emission reductions and cost savings that show this is a model for the rest of the country,” said former President Clinton in a statement. “Not only do investments like this help protect the environment and put people back to work, they pay for the cost of the improvements and generate additional savings into the future.”

The retrofit project focused on eight innovative improvement measures addressing core building infrastructure, common spaces and tenant suites. Improvement measures performed by Johnson Controls and JLL included the refurbishment of all 6,514 windows; installation of insulation behind all radiators; a chiller plant retrofit; new building management systems controls; new revenue-grade meters serving the entire building; and a web-based tenant energy management system.

The retrofit achieved a Class A rating, and subsequently leveraged an increase in workspace rent. The sustainability elements have attracted high-profile tenants, including LinkedIn, Skanska and Shutterstock.

Over the past three years, the energy retrofit model has been replicated throughout the United States. JCI and JLL jointly implemented the program at all 13 properties in Empire State Realty Trust’s New York metropolitan-area commercial portfolio, as well as One Worldwide Plaza in New York. JCI continues to implement this model at public and private sector buildings around the world and actively promotes the approach and results in leading global publications and conferences. JLL has also instituted the model at more than 50 other properties across the nation, including The Moscone Center in San Francisco and Chicago Union Station, doubling the number of projects it has worked on in the past year alone.

“The ability of the Empire State Building project to exceed the energy savings targets three years in a row demonstrates the value and predictability of the deep energy retrofit approach,” said Clay Nesler, vice president of global energy and sustainability for Johnson Controls, in a statement. “The success of this project, which combines rigorous measurement and verification, transparent reporting and a no-risk performance contracting delivery model, will hopefully inspire many additional organizations to implement similar projects and take advantage of the significant financial, environmental and reputational benefits.”