Overwhelmed by your incomprehensibly massive, energy efficiency retrofit project? Here's some perspective.
how does a giant monkey impact a building's carbon footprint?
If you were able to implement a comprehensive energy efficiency retrofit by updating your building's controls, automation processes, lighting and more - and if you could save 38% of the building's energy and lower your building costs by $4.4 million annually, all for the low, low price of $550 million, you'd do it, right?
No? Well, maybe that's because it's unlikely that you own the Empire State Building*. Still, this type of massive undertaking of retrofitting one of the world's most famous buildings can be seen as a pretty important symbol of exactly what's possible when it comes to contemplating these projects. If a 78-year-old, 102-story, nearly 3 million-square-foot building can be successfully renovated to improve energy use, advance green technology and reduce its carbon footprint, then so can our schools, hospitals, offices and pretty much all of the buildings that you are connected to in some way.
nearly 3 million square feet of renovation. no problem!
What's more, the Empire State Building wants to show you how to do it. In a recent article in Fast Company, author Christine Arena shares the extraordinary level of public transparency with which the ESB ownership approached their retrofit project. The company created a website called Empire State Building Sustainability that features a ginormous amount of content dedicated to how the building's retrofit was planned, designed, and what lessons have been learned from the project so far. One particularly spiffy useful tool on the site is its "Solve the Retrofit Puzzle" feature in which site visitors can shuffle about the various elements of the project - including demand control ventilation, daylighting and plug controls, air handling units and more - in an effort to understand how the Empire State Building project was conceived and executed. It's really a wonderful, immersive, interactive tool that shows not only how important building controls and many other factors can be in a project of this size, but also how they - quite literally - all fit together.
(story via David Williams on Twitter)
* Of course, if you've found my little blog here and you are the owner of the Empire State Building, why not give Alps Controls a call today? We ♥ NY!