My dad clipped a really interesting newspaper article for me this week that highlights the greening of the Empire State Building. Besides the fact that I love to write about examples of energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprints, this article also gives me a chance to gloat about a bit of Boles family history that I am quite proud of.

As a young man my grandfather Howard Boles was a mechanical engineer for the Otis Elevator Company. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Howard was stationed in New York so that he could contribute to the design and oversee the construction of the Empire State Building’s elevators. No wonder New York has always held a soft spot in my heart, and is the place that my seven year-old daughter wants to visit more than any other.

So I was very impressed when I read the article about the actions the Empire State Building is taking to reduce its carbon footprint and in the process save a lot of money! The building’s greening program officially starts this month and features 8 key measures that are expected to reduce energy use by 38% within 5 years and save more than $4 million (US) per year! About half of those savings are going to be realized within the first 18 months of the project. Here is a list of the 8 actions that are going to be undertaken at the Empire State Building:

• Window retrofits
• Radiator retrofits
• Lighting upgrades
• Air conditioning upgrades
• Chiller plant retrofit
• Building control system upgrade
• Ventilation control upgrade
• Energy management system for each tenant

Most buildings are not going to realize annual savings of $4 million, but then again most buildings don’t have over 20,000 people that work there each day like the Empire State Building does. But even an office complex with only 200 employees can save tens of thousands of dollars a year by taking similar actions as the Empire State. And on top of the annual energy savings that will be realized, there are dozens of incentive and rebate programs from utilities and different levels of government that will cover a portion of the cost to do the work. A word of warning that was passed along by one of my readers when I discussed rebates in a previous post - always make sure to get energy audits done before and after the work is done to make sure you qualify for the incentives.