Although the efforts made to try and reduce our over usage of resources, New York is a huge contributor to global warming. “The heating and cooling of buildings produces three-fourths of the city’s emissions contributing to global warming and sea level rise, city officials said; the 2009 law applies to the biggest energy consumers, buildings of more than 50,000 square feet and multiple-building properties with a total of more than 100,000 square feet.” This is why officials have released energy consumption data for large buildings, so that their residents know just exactly how eco-friendly (or not) their homes are. Buildings are given a letter grade, much like those of restaurants, to show how they are excelling or how they need improvement. ““The benefit is a more informed marketplace,” said Cliff Majersik, executive director of the Institute for Market Transformation, a nonprofit group in Washington that promotes building energy efficiency and advises the city on its rating efforts.” Interestingly, it turns out that buildings built in the 1970s have the highest consumption rate compared with older buildings. Obviously, the highest energy usage per square foot tends to be in households with higher incomes. The letter grades are extremely helpful because although buildings such as Solaire and TriBeCa green market themselves as “green”, they received a D.
