Energy Benchmarking for New York City Boards & Building Owners

How FirstService Energy Helps FirstService Residential Clients Comply with New York City’s Benchmarking Law

New York City Local Law 84 requires boards and owners of residential buildings 25,000 square feet and above to annually benchmark, measure and report their energy and water consumption by May 1 each year. The 2022 compliance deadline was extended to May 31.

While many companies offer benchmarking services, many do not conduct a thorough audit of a building's energy and typology data - critical metrics of the benchmarking process that establish accurate reporting. Incorrect or inaccurate data may result in costly building violations.
 
FirstService Energy’s benchmarking team rigorously audits and verifies each building's energy and typology data to confirm its accuracy. To collect and store data for each property, our team uses a proprietary benchmarking typology portal, which streamlines the submission, review, modification and approval of data collected. The goal, at every step of the process, is to maximize efficiency and avoid costly fines for non-compliance.

The most common reporting inaccuracies include:

• Building square footage
• Meters added by utilities that are not associated with the property
• Exclusion of buidling sub-components (commercial spaces, community facilities, etc.)
• Square footage for sub-components attributed to the primary residential component

Building Energy Report Cards

The path to success for every building begins with benchmarking. The next step is to apply the information gleaned from these audits into actionable data that can improve whole-building efficiency. Each year, our team prepares a customized Energy Report Card for each property we benchmark. Using our proprietary Energy Information Management System, our team records and analyzes each building’s energy use, utility costs, typology information, carbon emissions and operating equipment. The data is then compared to similar buildings to identify unique opportunities to reduce energy and costs.
 
Energy Report Cards help boards and owners:

• Assess energy performance compared to similar buildings
• Pinpoint specific measures to lower costs and improve efficiency
• Prepare to meet Local Law 97 carbon emissions limits
• See targeted energy usage insights
• Develop an energy reduction plan that aligns with long-term goals

Because our database is populated with historical energy data from thousands of buildings managed by FirstService Residential across the country, our team can benchmark a property against a larger pool of buildings — a service offering no other company can provide in similar scope.