Empire State Realty Trust (ESRT) announced that it is one of four partners selected to receive a competitive grant in the first funding round of the Empire Building Challenge, a $50 million state initiative spearheaded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to reduce 85% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. ESRT joins a select group of real estate peers in this commitment to carbon neutrality goals through investments and innovation in energy efficiency, electrification, energy storage, and retrofit projects.
“Empire State Realty Trust is a long-standing leader in green buildings and we are pleased to partner with them as they push to achieve carbon neutrality across their portfolio,” said Doreen Harris, president and CEO at NYSERDA. “Building on a widely replicated deep energy retrofit in 2009, this Empire State Building 2.0 retrofit project will help demonstrate the business case for building decarbonization and advance innovative technologies needed to meet the needs of all high-rise buildings in New York.”
NYSERDA evaluated proposals based on a project’s scalability and feasibility to address the major challenges of decarbonization of high-rise buildings, as well as the building owner’s willingness and ability to implement solutions successfully across their portfolio of buildings. Its investment in ESRT’s work will provide “proof of concept” to implement pilots for several key projects that are planned for replication throughout the Empire State Building, as well as the rest of the Empire State Realty Trust portfolio.
“The Empire Building Challenge grant is important to ESRT’s leadership work in sustainability and energy efficiency,” said Dana Robbins Schneider, ESRT’s senior vice president, director of energy, sustainability and ESG. “This funding helps our work to innovate with new technologies, create local jobs, and accelerate progress.”
After a successful deep energy retrofit at the Empire State Building that reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and 54%, respectively, ESRT continues work to achieve its aggressive targets for net-zero carbon emissions at the Empire State Building by 2030, and across its 10.1 million-square-foot commercial portfolio by 2035.
