Enigin Update - First Green Lease for New York City
NEW YORK law firm WilmerHale, has signed a revolutionary green lease on office space with Silverstein Properties to share in the costs, and benefits, of energy-efficiency building upgrades.
The lease for 210,000 square feet of office space over several floors at 7 World Trade Center lower Manhattan, saw New York mayor Michael Bloomberg on hand yesterday for the signing of the lease.
They Mayor revealed: "This agreement between Silverstein Properties and the law firm WilmerHale breaks new ground in the field of energy conservation -- and we expect it will be a pioneering model for commercial leases.
"This is part of our broad campaign to increase the energy efficiency of large buildings all across the city," Bloomberg said.
The Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability crafted the language of the lease, in what can be described as a “groundbreaking” departure. The lease encourages the landlords to invest in energy efficient upgrades in the building.
Previously, leases emphasised that building owners were responsible for any upfront cost of energy efficient improvements, with tenants being the beneficiaries of the reduced energy cost generated from the upgrades. Tenants rarely share in the costs that owners pay for capital improvements as it is argued that it takes too long to earn their investment back, but the new “Green Leases” evaluates how much money will be saved over the length of a projected payback period, instead of the life of the improvements.
This approach shortens the amount of time needed for the owner to recoup the investment from savings, effectively making owners and tenants more likely to make capital improvements. Hence, under “green leases”, such as the one signed by WilmerHale, the buildings owners and the tenants share the costs and benefits.
“This is no standard commercial lease—this is an energy-aligned green lease,” Bloomberg added during a press conference at the building yesterday morning. He added this lease “breaks new ground” anticipating that it will serve as a model for future leasing deals across New York City.
Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said in a statement: “The adoption of the mayor's green leasing language in commercial leases is a win-win-win for owners, tenants and the city.
“Building owners will now be incentivised to invest in energy efficient improvements that offer significant benefits to tenants and also will help our city's commercial buildings to become cleaner and greener.”
Enigin Plc's energy efficiency solutions are designed to allow building owners and tenants to control their energy use, if necessary down to a granular level or for a whole building. Allied with other Enigin technology, substantial and measurable savings can be made on energy demand, energy costs and carbon emissions.
Picture by Trodel
