To augment our sustainability courses and complement other initiatives, in collaboration with CUNY’s Building Performance Lab, we’re developing a web site designed to serve the owners, property managers, and tenants of commercial buildings who want to make their properties top performers.

Conceived of as a learning center and forum for the real estate community and shaped by users who offer feedback and contribute content, “NYC Building Performance” will grow richer and more interactive over time. While focused on New York, its content will serve other cities, too. To fully realize its potential, we’re seeking funding to underwrite its costs.

To elicit your feedback and suggestions, here’s a list of topics the site could cover:

• key concepts in building performance, including the “whole building perspective”
• the business case for improving performance
• standards for performance
• core technical tasks entailed in improving performance
• issues related to “split incentives” (owner v. tenant), the challenge of multi-tenant buildings, lease provisions governing who pays for energy and prospects for “green leases,” arrangements for submetering
• pervasive organizational barriers related to gathering and tracking data on utility bills
• the importance of ensuring data integrity
• a sketch of what a project to improve building performance may entail
• sample project tools, including tools for benchmarking, and a discussion of complex benchmarking issues
• information on software for managing data on energy consumption and carbon emissions for single buildings or entire portfolios
• reducing “plug loads”: the energy demands of every device that draws power, from massive data centers to the bootleg space heater under a desk
• new technologies, ranging from LEDs to advanced building automated systems, that can reduce energy consumption
• the crucial role of operations and maintenance practices that can sustain gains once they’re achieved
• opportunities to participate in NYC’s sustainability community

The site will link to a schedule of free webinar viewings and to many other information resources, including timely articles on advances in the field. (Eventually, it might spin off a webzine devoted to efforts to improve NYC building performance.)

Other features may include these:

• a Photo Gallery documenting projects around the city
• graphics illustrating building operating systems and processes
• examples of data visualization techniques that help building-system operators interpret data
• FAQs
• lessons learned from CUNY’s project to retrofit its North Campus
• lessons learned from New York City’s efforts to green its public buildings
• success stories from Europe, where energy efficiency is a priority
• interviews with leaders in the field, anecdotes, and feature stories that illuminate, in human terms, challenges, failures, and successes
• case studies documenting particularly valuable lessons
• online forums guided by knowledgeable moderators who promote mentoring and peer-to-peer exchanges
• discussion of green jobs and education, training, and credentialing issues related to them
• blogs written by people who are engaged in performance-improvement projects
• web cams installed in work sites, to convey the reality of what it means to operate building systems

To let us know your preferences for content, and to submit photos for an online Photo Gallery documenting projects to improve building performance, please contact

Christine Van Lenten
christinevanlenten@earthlink.net