NYC's Zone Green Updates City Zoning Laws to Encourage Tighter Building Envelopes

NYC neighborhoods have some of the smallest per capita carbon footprints in the country -- and they do it just by living smaller, living closer and driving less.  It’s just one more thing that New Yorkers can feel superior about. However, they’re not gloating – they’re acting. The city is listening to all the smart people that comprise the Urban Green Council, the New York Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is enacting Zone Green, “the most comprehensive effort of any U.S. city to sweep aside zoning obstacles to the construction and retrofitting of green buildings.”

The rest of the country should really take notice and emulate NYC when it comes to examining building codes and zoning laws.  Its planners’ eyes are wide open to the need for a focus on NYC’s existing buildings – 85% of them will still be around in 2030. Also some of the first Zone Green proposals announced on December 12^th are about aligning codes with more demanding energy performance standards for building envelopes (walls, windows, roof).

Again, this seems the right focus for having a big impact.  As has been pointed out on this blog before, two of the top measures deployed in the Empire State Building energy-efficiency upgrade were building envelope-related. The super-insulating SeriousGlass windows and insulated reflective barriers behind radiator units contributed about 25% to the estimated 38% annual energy savings projected for that iconic building.

So we think it’s great that new NYC zoning rules will encourage building owners to add external insulation to building walls. We’re anxious to see Zone Green encourage better windows too; after all, how much sense is there in augmenting wall insulation to R-19 or 20, while accepting dismal R-2 to R-4 performance from windows.