The EPA Just Released Its 2014 Energy Star City Rankings and NYC's Position May Surprise You

When you were a kid in school, getting an award for showing the most improvement was almost as lame as being told, "but... you have a nice personality."

But in the case of buildings that have achieved Energy Star®, and in a city like ours with 500 million sf-plus of commercial space, and a solid proportion of it built before 1950, "most improved" takes on a whole new meaning. Especially when your city is America’s biggest concentration of commercial real estate, and more than twice as big as the next largest commercial center, Chicago.

The EPA just released its 2014 rankings for the cities with the most Energy Star® buildings and while New York City ranks fourth behind perennial first place city, Los Angeles, in terms of the number of buildings under Energy Star®, there is good news buried deeper in the statistics.

Where New York is Number One

LA may have gotten on board sooner in its Energy Star® quest and held the title longer, but the Big Apple has gone from #12 in 2009 to #4 in 2013, the ranking it held onto in 2014. No other city has improved its ranking by so much or so quickly.

New York also takes first place in the area that really counts--and not just to a New Yorker. No other city has saved more: $142.4 million per year as compared to LA’s $132.2 or the next closest city, Washington, DC at $119 million a year.

And there’s more good news. LA might have 443 Energy Star® buildings to New York’s 303, but LA’s amount of Energy Star® floor space is rated at 102.7 million sf compared to New York’s 113.8 million sf, which is surpassed only by Chicago’s 116.2 million sf. New York also ranked second in emissions prevented.

So with two first and two second place finishes, New York can certainly take several victory laps. It’s more than great cocktail conversation--use it when giving prospective tenant tours, especially those from out of town.

BOMA/NY is also proud to have encouraged Energy Star® certification for more than two decades through our annual Energy Action Day and our many seminars; by using the BOMA International standards and their heavy reliance on Energy Star® rankings in our Pinnacle Awards, and through the on-going work of our Energy/Sustainability Committee.

With the talent of our members and New York’s ability to improve so dramatically, can an overall first place be far behind?