ASHRAE Conference to focus on energy-conserving practices.
Press Release Summary:
Scheduled for April 19-20, ASHRAE's specialty conference titled Existing Buildings in Urban Areas: Dramatically Cutting the Energy Waste, will guide building community and government in reducing energy in existing buildings. Speakers will include Tony Malkin, President of Malkin Properties and Jody Durst, Co-President of The Durst Organization. These owners will help highlight NYC's "Greener, Greater Buildings" laws, the first in nation to address energy usage in existing buildings.
Original Press Release:
Existing Building Upgrades: Energy-Conserving Practices and Policies Focus of NYC ASHRAE Conference
ATLANTA - From the city's most recognizable building to its first green commercial office tower, lessons learned underneath the sustainability skyline of New York City will be shared at an ASHRAE speciality conference in April.
Among the speakers at ASHRAE's Existing Buildings in Urban Areas: Dramatically Cutting the Energy Waste, are Tony Malkin, president, Malkin Properties, a real estate firm that owns and manages over 14 million square feet of office, retail residential and other properties in 15 states, including the Empire State Building, and Jody Durst, co-president, The Durst Organization, the owner, manager and builder of 9 million square feet of mid-town Manhattan office and residential properties, including 4 Times Square. These owners will help highlight NYC's ground-breaking "Greener, Greater Buildings" laws, the first in the nation to address energy usage in existing buildings.
The ASHRAE conference serves to guide the building community and government in reducing energy in existing buildings. The conference takes place April 19-20, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt in New York, N.Y. To register or for more information, visit www.ashrae.org/cutenergywaste. The conference is endorsed by BOMA International and the U.S. Green Building Council and sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Malkin and Durst are taking part in an April 19 panel focused on real estate executives. They will share lessons learned in making their properties sustainable and discuss why sustainability is a driving force in the real estate industry.
"The founders of these two organizations helped construct the city's skyline," Michael Bobker, conference chair said. "And today's generation is working to make that skyline more sustainable. The Empire State Building is undergoing a $500 million renovation with a focus on greatly reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions. And the Durst property portfolio sets new standards for use of new technologies. They truly can speak to our conference goal of cutting energy waste."
Also taking place at the conference is a session on Energy Performance Rating and Disclosure, which will include an update on ASHRAE's Building Energy Quotient program. The program, launched in a pilot phase in December, serves to inform building owners and operators, tenants and prospective buyers on the energy use of buildings, to encourage the building industry to find ways to cut energy use and costs. Some 25 buildings, represented by leading building owners and designers, real estate developers and government agencies, are involved in the pilot program.
On April 20, a breakfast talk on Strategizing an Urban Campaign is featured. Those taking part include representatives of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, an international association of local governments as well as national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development, and Rohit T. Aggarwala, director, the Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, City of New York. Aggarwala will provide an update on Plan NYC, New York City's ambitious long-term sustainability plan.
Also taking place on April 20 is a session Real Estate Decision-Making - Bridging the Gap between Engineers and Decision-Makers. Featured speakers from TIAA-CREF, Sentinel Real Estate Corp. and Prudential Real Estate Investors will evaluate investment in energy efficiency in existing buildings. Real estate decision makers will explain opportunity cost of capital and other barriers to investing, as well as what drives them to invest and what they need to see from engineering companies and energy service companies.
The conference addresses investment and financial decision-making, effective public policies, and necessary technical steps (energy audits, commissioning, retro-commissioning, benchmarking of utility consumption, and design and construction of energy related problems).
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.
