The Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation — the philanthropic arm of the German bank — is financing a database of hundreds of buildings that have been sustainably renovated in New York City. The database will detail boiler improvements, insulation updates, window replacements and other substantial green retrofits and their related cash savings for building owners. The Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation is hoping that this database will be a useful reference for people looking to update their own buildings — if hard facts are available of cost savings from retrofits, they believe it will lead more people to green their structures.
The Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation has brought together a number of NYC groups including the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Con Edison and lenders like the Community Preservation Corporation in order to compile the report, which they call the Deutsche Bank/Living Cities Building Energy Efficiency Data Report. The report is perfectly timed to coincide with over $1 billion dollars in public and private funds that have been set aside for green retrofits of New York City buildings. Hopefully the online database compiled upon the completion of the report will help guide that investment.
“There is an almost universal lack of understanding of building energy usage,” Luke Falk told the New York Times. Falk, who is a project manager at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, added that “there is no national database that we know of that records the results. Likewise, utilities across the country run Energy Star programs, but there is no central aggregated database of the results of that effort.” Hopefully the information generated by this report will prove the savings of green retrofits and jump start a city-wide greening craze.
+ Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation
Via The New York Times
Green buildings are great and everyone seems to want LEED certification. Modernizing the elevators with modern, microprocessor equipment and regenerative drives can add to the energy savings. However, at this time, improvements in energy efficiency do NOT score you LEED points. The overall comsumption of building power by the elevators is a relatively small percetage of the whole buildings power usage. Also, be sure to check out potential rebates from power companies. This can amount to substantial savings.
Overall, the rebates offered (if any) and the energy savings do NOT, in and of themselves, justify elevator modernization and certainly do not come close to a 1:1 payback, even over 20+ years. However, a 5 figure rebate from the power company and a reduction in elevator usage of 30% or more help to make the decision easier. When the elevators need to be modernized anyway, because they are old and inefficient as people movers, the money that comes back through these savings are a nice bonus!