Teaching an Old Building New Tricks

By Jeff Nippes

Unlike our canine friends, you can teach an old building new tricks. The iconic Empire State Building recently achieved LEED Gold Certification, and now the once dated and inefficient super structure is a lean, mean energy- and natural resource-conserving machine.

The Empire State Building—celebrating its 80th anniversary this year—has undergone a remarkable renovation that will reduce the building’s energy consumption by over 38% and save around $4.4 million in spending every year, meaning it will take only about three years to pay back the cost of the implementation.

The improvements will also enable the Empire State Building to offset around 105,000 metric tons of carbon emissions over a 15-year period. Additionally, many new LEED features include low-flow toilets, carpets made with recycled materials, low-VOC paints and adhesives, green wall coverings, and green pest control and cleaning products. During the renovation process construction debris and tenant waste were recycled to gain building reuse credits, and a new tenant energy management system was introduced.

All of these improvements illustrate that no matter old, big or tall a structure is, there are still plenty of ways to obtain LEED Certification and turn any building into Gold!