When you think of New York City, the image of a city of dense buildings probably comes to mind. There are almost one million of them in a small area that is little more than 300 square miles. The building sector has a dominant impact on the city’s carbon foot print, so if NYC wants to confront its environmental issues, it will need to concentrate on making the buildings operate more efficiently. PlaNYC is New York City’s motivated, comprehensive plan containing many initiatives that relate to green buildings and energy efficiency, and is being utilized for sustainable growth through the year of 2030.

The goals of PlaNYC contain numerous cross-cutting initiatives including elements of green building, which highlight the importance of making New York sustainable. One of the major green building initiatives is to strengthen the Construction Codes of New York City. Construction Codes are the DNA of buildings and also have the widest reach because they impact all renovations and new construction projects.

One of the major goals of PlaNYC’s is to reduce citywide greenhouse gas (GHG) by 30 percent by the year 2030. During the developmental stages, it was analyzed where the city’s emissions came from. It was found that roughly 75 percent of New York City’s GHG emissions were attributable to the energy use of its buildings. Because of this, New York City became one of the first jurisdictions to concentrate on the improvement of energy efficiency in existing buildings; and in doing so it now leads innovation in green building. To stay updated on PlaNYC, keep checking the PlaNYC website.