Earlier today, the City Council passed the four pieces of legislation which Mayor Bloomberg introduced last April as his "Greener, Greater Buildings Plan." As you'll recall, building owners immediately opposed one of the bills (Int. 967: Audits & Retrocommissioning), which would have required them to implement a bundle of energy efficiency upgrades with a payback period of less than five years after the results of a rolling audit process. While auditing remains part of the approved legislation, owners will not be required to make the improvements, which will now just be identified based on a "reasonable" payback period. Public buildings, however, must still install any retrofit measure that the audit pegs with less than a seven-year payback. Although the costs of auditing were noted by opponents to the bills earlier this year, mandatory energy audits are now required every ten years, though buildings certified under LEED-EB and Energy Star are exempt.
