Sunday, December 5, 2021

It's not easy building green

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AfXgX63gTLOr-vrD-G3LSj7HpxM=/0x0:3000x2000/1820x1024/filters:focal(1260x760:1740x1240):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70222193/111521_wall_st_building_1.0.jpg

THE CITY

New York buildings are slowly becoming more energy efficient — but with nearly half earning Ds or Fs on city report cards, many are still struggling to make the grade.

That’s the conclusion of THE CITY’s analysis of preliminary data obtained from the city Department of Buildings, offering a glimpse into the grading system’s second year — even as the pandemic skews typical energy usage patterns.

Across the city, nearly 20% of buildings 25,000 square feet or larger received A grades, compared with about 16% in 2020, the data shows.

Like last year, lackluster Ds proved the most popular grade, though the share fell from 44% in 2020 to about 39% this year. And over 9% of buildings — up from about 7.5% last year — earned Fs, meaning the building owner failed to submit data to the city.

Overall, more than 20,000 buildings — from pre-war apartment complexes to skyscrapers — were graded. Poor grades carry no penalties, but failing to post the letter marks could mean a $1,250 fine.

Environment boosters saw reason for hope in the latest collective report card.

“Building owners care so much. We’ve never seen anything have as high an impact,” said Donnel Baird, CEO of the company Blocpower, which upgrades buildings for improved energy efficiency, mainly through electrification. “Even the threat of fines has not created as much of a reaction as these letter grades on the front of the buildings.”

On a per-borough basis, Manhattan’s building stock had the largest share of As compared to all its grades: 23%, up from almost 15% in 2020, when the borough came in third behind Brooklyn and Queens.

Gina Bocra, DOB’s chief sustainability officer, attributes the overall improvement to the visibility of the energy efficiency information, which motivates property owners to do better.

“Owners have been acting on that information, so the transparency is working, and we’re getting them to be more familiar with what’s happening in their building,” Bocra said. “They’re beginning to make alterations to the building to change what’s happening there.”

The grades and the focus on energy efficiency are part of the city’s effort to slash greenhouse gas emissions from buildings — the city’s largest source of emissions — 40% from 2005 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050 in the race to mitigate climate change.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a Tax period...

Anonymous said...

The 'sham' of Green New Deal is its true intent: Advancing socialism.
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/436320-the-sham-of-green-new-deal-is-its-true-intent-advancing-socialism

Anonymous said...

Now we entered the carbon tax fraud era.
Never mind there is no data to support this fraud.

Anonymous said...

Climate change is also big business. They won't admit it's over so fast.

Anonymous said...

co2 is better for fweedom !

Anonymous said...

Someone please tell the bartender it's Snowing in Hawaii now !

Anonymous said...

Nothing like a "green" building to get some deranged right wing-nut in a tizzy. Then again, the only green building would be "no building". Or a building with a few coats of green paint.

Anonymous said...

@Nothing like a "green" building to get some deranged right wing-nut in a tizzy.

Says the LibTURD™.

Anonymous said...

70s: "were about to have an ice age! "
2000s: "everything is melting!"

The pretentiousness of humans to think they can estimate what's going on in 30-50 years. Half of a blink of an eye and all of a sudden we are all gonna die!. Or you know. They want funding by creating panic... but politicians would never do that....

Anonymous said...

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
Carl Sagan

None of us are immune to this. Remain skeptical. Ask questions that require evidence, not opinion. Encourage debate between opposing views. We need more Carl Sagan's in the world.

Anonymous said...

Mark Twain said “It is easier to fool someone, than convince someone they have been fooled”

Anonymous said...

If climate change is such a worry, then how come no "climate scientist" is trying to figure out how to prevent the next mini ice age? When the last one had Manhatten under 2K feet of ice?

Anonymous said...

This is a Tax period.
Yep, you could change out the heating systems but that costs a fortune to do correctly. As in enough to make a real difference.
The only fix for electric would be changing the law to allow a landlord to enter and apartment to confiscate big high GPM shower heads, and replace any plasma TVs or incident lights. Then another law to compel and enforce tenants to use more efficient equipment.
That 300 pound section 8 mom of 5 watching 12 hours a day of old 800 watt hour 55 inch plasma TV also running an air condition because of the heat being generated isn't doing anybody any favors. Where is AOC on laws to legally get this old junk out of homes?
These and the assholes with the data mining bit coin computers are the biggest energy offenders. Literally spin the water & electric meters off the walls.
Question is who pays the $$$ ?
Would AOC hand me tenants rights, hand me $80,000-$100,000 to buy everybody in a 4 family building better crap ?
I don't think so, AOC fans only want to cry "tenants rights" "Cancel rent" "no more evictions" then put the blame on landlords for not having money to pay for it.

NPC_translator said...

It's always a good idea to have more efficient buildings, but that's because you can save money. Thinking this has anything to do with "climate change" is ludicrous.

Even if you accept the (fake) CO2 theory about climate change, the impact of NYC buildings is basically unmeasurable. If you could snap your fingers and make every building in NYC A-rated, it would mean nothing whatsoever in the scheme of things and the impact on global CO2 would be unmeasurable.

People are slowly waking up to the epic scams that continue to be pulled off. Robert Kennedy's new book shows us how AIDS/HIV was a gigantic scam involving trillions of dollars. It's increasingly clear every day that Covid is a similar scam involving trillions of dollars. "Climate change" is yet another one. The scientific community is as eager to sell out for cash as any porn star. The idea of "objective" and honorable scientists is farcical.

Anonymous said...

This is a Tax period.

Correct. Taxation without representation.

Anonymous said...

@“ If climate change is such a worry, then how come no "climate scientist" is trying to figure out how to prevent the next mini ice age? ”

I think you have been watching too much Disney Channel.

The only ice age coming to NY is the one in your refrigerator.

Anonymous said...

@only ice age coming to NY is the one in your refrigerator.

Did your "Woke" preschool teacher tell you about the ice ?
Shame on these “adults” for taking advantage of you.

Anonymous said...

*I think you have been watching too much Disney Channel.*

Your favorite channel. Still in mommy's basement?

Anonymous said...

Climate by real scientist, Princeton physicist Dr. Will Happer, professor emeritus ay Princeton University:

https://youtu.be/PblYr-KjOVY

Anonymous said...

On the bright side Snowflakes you didn't have to read mean POTUS 45 Tweets.
Let's Go Brandon

Anonymous said...

@Let's Go Brandon

FJB™
FCDC™
FFDA™
FBDB™

Anonymous said...

I don't get why conservatives don't want to save money on their electric and heating bills and they don't want anyone else to, either.

Anonymous said...

"good idea to have more efficient buildings"

Partly true but the big chunk of problem is not the buildings, its the appliances and lighting being used in them. A mandate to ban all incandescent lights, old TVs and enforce such tenants is needed. Otherwise a landlord is powerless to reduce energy consumption. A landlord (usually hated) just cant enter an apartment and demand change of things because tenants have more rights then the owners in NYC. The tenants (especially black tenants) will resist and do everything possible to make the landlord miserable.

Anonymous said...

Yes more white twinks than a case of Twinkies filled with cream.

Anonymous said...

@“ A landlord (usually hated) just cant enter an apartment ”

A bunch of extortionists. The vermin of society.

Anonymous said...

@“ I don't get why conservatives don't want to save money”

Because they are as dumb as a rock. And they’re not conservatives. They’re right wing nuts, or fascists or just plain assholes. Plenty of them commenting on this site.

Anonymous said...

*I don't get why conservatives don't want to save money on their electric and heating bills and they don't want anyone else to, either.*
Where did you get this non-sense? Saving money is a left, right issue now?

You are so full of it is not even funny. When taken to court you little punks melt quicker than a block of ice in the Sahara.

Watch

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/09/bombshell-in-court-filing-facebook-admits-fact-checks-are-nothing-more-than-opinion/

Journalist John Stossel is suing Facebook after Facebook’s ‘fact checkers’ labeled climate change information that Stossel posted as “false and misleading”. In the middle of all this is the nefarious website “Climate Feedback” which has a bunch of climate zealots that write up what they claim are “fact checks” for articles, videos, and news stories they disagree with.

Facebook just blew the “fact check” claim right out of the water in court.

In its response to Stossel’s defamation claim, Facebook responds on Page 2, Line 8 in the court document (download it below) that Facebook cannot be sued for defamation (which is making a false and harmful assertion) because its ‘fact checks’ are mere statements of opinion rather than factual assertions.

Opinions are not subject to defamation claims, while false assertions of fact can be subject to defamation. The quote in Facebook’s complaint is,


“The labels themselves are neither false nor defamatory; to the contrary, they constitute protected opinion.”


That's right. Fact-check (really censorship) is nothing more than an opinion.
Opinions are like ass holes, everybody got one. Got it?

Anonymous said...

# A mandate to ban all incandescent lights, old TVs and enforce such tenants is needed.

What is really needed a mandate to ban all stupid people like you and ship them over to the paradise in North Korea or China.
Carbon tax is what we really talking about, is taxation without representation, based on fake dogmas pushed as "settled science". IPCC couldn't even find a good scientist for God's sake, 50% of them are political hacks with agendas.