New York Greenest City in Nation
San Francisco is often one of the first cities that comes to mind when thinking of “green” living – but New Yorkers have put that southern California hippie town to shame with this latest development. The Big Apple’s most iconic figure, the Empire State Building, has been named the largest purchaser of renewable energy when it announced its partnership with the Green Mountain Energy Company.
King Kong’s former resting place recently brokered a two year deal with the carbon offset retailer and recent NRG Energy of New Jersey acquisition, eventually giving the building 55 million kilowatt-hours worth of renewable energy annually. That’s like shutting off New Yorker’s lights for an entire week or reducing the number of annual cab rides by 40 million – both of which would ignite rage in every New Yorker from Manhattan to the Bronx. Renovations on the 80 year old building have been ongoing for about a year and plan to reduce the annual energy consumption by 38 percent, or $4.4 million.
“It was a natural fit for us to combine 100 percent clean energy with our nearly completed, ground breaking energy efficiency retrofit work,” Anthony E. Malkin, president of Malkin Holdings, said. “Clean energy and our nearly 40 percent reduced consumption of watts and BTUs gives us a competitive advantage in attracting the best credit tenants at the best rents. Our program of innovation at the Empire State Building shows simple, replicable, non-proprietary steps for other landlords to follow to be more energy efficient, cleaner and greener.”
Source: Green Mountain Energy
