The New York Power Authority (NYPA) recently announced the completion of a report on the energy use of New York government buildings that provides a baseline for measuring the future progress of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s BuildSmart NY initiative.
BuildSmart NY is intended to increase the energy efficiency of those buildings by 20 percent by 2020. It stems from an executive order that Cuomo issued last December, which designates NYPA to coordinate the efforts to achieve the 20 percent mandated reduction in energy use.
When fully implemented, the initiative will result in $100 million in annual taxpayer savings, according to NYPA.
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It will also help eliminate 8 million metric tons of “climate-changing” greenhouse- gas emissions, or the equivalent of permanently removing 1.6 million cars from the road, NYPA contends. A metric ton equals nearly 2,205 pounds.
The report sets the groundwork for expanding energy efficiency in state facilities to save taxpayer dollars by curbing state energy use, generate green jobs in the energy-efficiency industry and cut greenhouse-gas levels for reducing the state’s carbon footprint, Cuomo said in a news release.
“The report also provides a basis for measuring the progress of BuildSmart NY and will be updated annually on the advances we’re making to ensure we’re truly accountable to the people of the state for delivering the results in energy efficiency we set out to accomplish,” Cuomo said.
The report, entitled “The BuildSmart NY Baseline Energy Performance of New York State Government Buildings,” contains information on the energy use of about 16,000 state-government buildings comprising more than 200 million square feet of space, for which it annually spends about $500 million on energy.
Cuomo wants BuildSmart NY to prioritize projects at the largest and most inefficient buildings utilizing the data from the baseline report.
The initiative is intended to save money on energy costs, catalyze the marketplace, and increase investment opportunities for private-building owners and the clean-energy technology industry.
BuildSmart NY is also aimed at reducing dependence on fossil fuels to increase energy security, reducing stress on energy-transmission infrastructure, and helping to protect the environment, according to NYPA.
In addition, the state expects the engineering, construction and other activities that these energy-efficiency projects will generate to contribute “several thousand local ‘green jobs’ to New York’s economy,” NYPA said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
