The iconic Empire State Building, whose green retrofit and refurbishing have become almost as celebrated as the landmark, earned LEED-Gold certification today.
The recognition from the U.S. Green Building Council and its green building verification arm, the Green Building Certification Institute, is the latest laurel for the 102-story skyscraper that was completed 80 years ago.
The environmental upgrade of the building was the largest retrofit of its kind to date in the United States. It is expected to reduce energy use by more than $4.4 million annually, cut carbon emissions by 105,000 metric tons over a 15-year period and provide a payback in slightly more than three years.
Anthony Malkin, whose Malkin Holdings supervises the Empire State Building Company, brought together Johnson Controls Inc., Jones Lang LaSalle, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Clinton Climate Initiative and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority for the project. Their work on the project has been documented online at Malkin's behest to serve as a resource for other building owners interested in improving the energy efficiency of their property.
The retrofit was part of a broader $550 million renovation of the 2.85 million-square-foot building.
"LEED Gold certification is another win for us following our ground-breaking energy efficiency retrofit work," Malkin said in a prepared statement. "It is my hope that all future LEED certifications for existing building projects will require demonstrable, quantifiable improvements in energy efficiency, delivering economic returns for building owners, tenants, and the communities in which they are located."
In an interview earlier this year, Malkin underscored his view that green buildings pay off for owners and occupants. "Everything that we're doing at the Empire State Building is about business and, bottom line, that's the first and most important thing," Malkin told me. "We're not about paying more to do something qualitatively different, we're about market-ready solutions."
Pursuit of LEED-Gold certification was in line with that mindset. Real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle, the sustainability program manager for the Empire State Building, showed that it could be done at "an incremental cost of about $0.25 per square foot."
The LEED-Gold certification applies to the entire structure as an existing building. A 3,500-square-foot area in the building has just received LEED-Platinum certification (the highest designation) under the USGBC standard for commercial interiors. The USGBC also plans to recognize Malkin's work and his vision for the Empire State Building's green transformation by honoring him with the organization's 2011 Leadership Award.
Other articles on the retrofit, the expected environmental performance of the building and the decision to buy green power for the site are available at GreenBiz.com.
Image CC licensed by Flickr user JoF.
Congratulations to the team
Congratulations to the team that worked on this project. I believe there was overlap with the Jones Lang LaSalle group on this team, and the JLL team that built the Bank of America headquarters, and those are two very impressive accomplishments. Thank you for being such pioneers in this industry. Though New York City is a unique market, a payback period of just over three years is incredibly impressive. I would be curious to see what the payback period on this renovation would be in a market that did not demand the rents per square foot that Manhattan does. Regardless, this project should be used as an example for all of those who need to be convinced of the positive economics of green building. Though long-term owners tend to understand the benefit, with such short payback periods, any investor in real estate should make green building a priority.
Ground-up green building is
Ground-up green building is certainly worthy of industry praise due to its positive effect on the environment, but refurbishing older buildings such as the Empire State Building is truly a monumental task. It amazes me that Malkin was able to implement LEED-certified standards at the ESB, much less have it pay for itself in only three years. Certainly the ability to get higher rents in New York City combined with the economies of scale which come with refurbishing a 2.8 million square foot building helped the case, but this should be a case study for commercial refurbishment for many years to come. I wish the article had explained the refurbishment process further as it likely underscores the difficulty of pulling something like this off.
Despite the initial lofty
Despite the initial lofty cost to refurbish the Empire State Building, it’s important to realize the investment return in the future—not only monetarily, but environmentally as well. It’s also great to see that the expansive work on the Empire State Building project is getting recgonized with one of LEED’s highest certifications. Going forward, it’s crucial we focus our efforts on energy-efficient refurbishing in partnership with new green projects.
Let's hope they avoid the
Let's hope they avoid the problem with so many LEED buildings that deliver no better performance than ordinary buildings, because no-one tunes and optimizes the control systems over time....
Congratulations! It is a
Congratulations!
It is a successful implementation of LEED EB system with joint efforts, I think so much investment can't called minor retrofit, if it is a major retrofit, it shall be called LEED NC not LEED EB, so this information is missing.
Another thing I am concerned, if the performance is measured in a continuing way and verified.