In national contest, city’s big buildings eye green savings
Installing motion sensing thermostats and replacing inefficient lighting in the city’s largest buildings are just two ways Chicago is hoping to win a competitive environmental challenge that could save millions.
Chicago’s inclusion in the City Energy Project — announced last month — is in part a way of overcoming barriers between landlords and tenants when it comes to energy efficiency in the city’s largest buildings, according to Becky Stanfield, Midwest policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Chicago is among 10 cities participating in the project, which involves building owners taking the reins on reducing electricity in their buildings — the largest single source of carbon emissions in the United States, representing 40 percent nationwide, according to the defense council.
The city that winds up winning the challenge will be held up as an example to the others — that is, the ideas used to reduce carbon emissions from the winning city will be shared with the other cities. And then there’s the other green benefit: Build- ing owners and their tenants could save money by reducing the amount of energy consumed.
Chicago’s tall buildings are responsible for 71 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and are the source of about $3 billion spent in operating costs, according to the mayor’s office. In New York City, about 75 to 80 percent of greenhouse gases come from large buildings, according to Bloomberg News.
“One of the big problems is that there are split incentives between building owners and the building tenants who may or may not see the all the benefits in investing in a lighting retrofit, for ex- ample, because they don’t own the building. If they don’t own, they don’t make capital improvement for the most part,” Stanfield said. “The project is looking for creative ways to align the incentives of the land tenants of the building so we can address efficiency both in common space and tenant space, where so much of the energy is consumed.”
Thirty-two large building owners in Chicago are already working to reduce emissions, participating in the city’s Retrofit Chicago Commercial Buildings Initiative.