BY DAVID J. FREEMAN & JESSE HINEY
The deadline for submission of energy benchmarking data for most large buildings in New York City is
just around the corner. The due date, May 1, 2011, was established by Local Law 841 when it was
enacted in 2009 as a component of New York City’s Greener, Greater Buildings Plan.2
Benchmarking requirements apply to (i) any building that exceeds 50,000 gross square feet, (ii) two
or more existing buildings on the same tax lot that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet, and
(iii) two or more buildings held as condominiums that are governed by the same board of managers
and together exceed 100,000 gross square feet.3
Owners of these buildings must submit, to U.S. EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager Benchmarking
Tool, data specified by the Portfolio Manager Worksheet.4 The information is then directly uploaded to
New York City’s electronic reporting structure.5
The data required to complete the Worksheet requires coordination with tenants. Owners are
obligated to request energy use information from separately metered non-residential tenants, and
such tenants are required by law to provide such information.6 However, tenant failure to provide the
requested data does not excuse an owner from performing the benchmarking process.7 Alternative
ways of completing the submission without all tenant data include the use of an extrapolation formula
or default values provided by the Department of Buildings,8 or aggregated information on the whole
building’s energy use from Con Edison.9 The penalty for failure to benchmark is anticipated to be $500
per quarter.10
This year’s benchmarking results (based on 2010 energy data) will not be a matter of public record.
However, benchmarking scores for covered non-residential buildings based on this year’s data will be
available through the City Department of Finance’s website by September 1, 2012. Benchmarking
results for covered residential buildings will become public by September 1, 2013. 11