2014 was a great year for the Building Energy Exchange! We opened the doors to our center, continued to deliver memorable and prominent programming, facilitated innovative proof of concept projects and are producing timely action-oriented research to guide our activities in 2015.

• 1300+ people have come to the Exchange
• 500+ people at 21 Building Energy Exchange hosted events
• 3,000 visits to our newly launched website, beex.wpengine.com

Programs Update

Doubling in staff size early in the year enabled to start to utilize our incredible space in the Surrogate’s Courthouse at 31 Chambers Street. After completing our Phase 1 renovations, we opened our doors in April with “Bright Ideas for a Resilient World”, a hugely successful event and mini-exhibit of the same name.

On June 20, we launched our very first “Daylight Hour” Campaign. This program encouraged businesses to turn off their lights for one hour on the Friday closest to the summer solstice, highlighted the availability of daylight in office spaces. 150 offices participated, 500,000 people were reached through social media and enough energy was saved to power a Tesla from Alaska to Argentina. We are looking forward to an even bigger campaign in 2015.

At the Exchange, our diverse programming included roundtables focused on energy efficiency best practices (Cleantech Adoption Roundtable), access to financing (Energy Efficiency Rodeo), daylight design with Christoph Reinhart of MIT, and global sustainability and resiliency (Chasing Ice with James Balog). We also provided our “See the Light” Training Series.

Projects Update

The Living Lab proof-of-concept project developed out of our “Let There Be Daylight” report. Working with our partners at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, we secured the commitment of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs to deploy advanced lighting, daylighting, and shading systems on one occupies floor of each of these companies’ flagship NYC office towers. These “state-of-the-shelf” systems will be monitored against a control floor to better understand and communicate their technical performance. BEEx will also report on the many factors that ensure successful selection, installation, and operation of these systems. 
 

Our Exchange now features two exhibits. Lighting Fundamentals illustrates the basic for design for energy efficient lighting. Bright Ideas for a Resilient World showcases low-carbon lighting solutions that were presented at our event of the same name.

Research and Presentations Update

Our report, “Let There Be Daylight” caught global interest. BEEx presented on the availability of daylighting and the Living Lab project in Frankfurt at Light and Build, in Las Vegas at LightFair, in New Orleans at GreenBuild, and in New York City at Building Energy NYC, as well as many other smaller talks and conferences.

We published our first case study, on the Related Companies retrofit, with many more on the way. These case studies highlight the availability of energy efficient technologies, as well as he most effective means of selecting, installing, and maintaining them. They are available in print and on our website.

Our latest research project is “Retrofitting Affordability.” Using an analysis of New York City’s energy use and audit data, this study identifies the most cost effective energy efficiency measures for key segments of multi-family housing. Recommendations will focus on measures to reduce utility bills, increase affordability of housing, decrease green house gas emissions, and improve overall quality of life for tenants of the 1.4 billion square feet of the city’s large residential properties. The findings will lay the groundwork for New York City’s “Retrofit Accelerator,” a primary component of Mayor de Blasio’s One City: Built to Last climate action plan.

Look Ahead

We are excited to welcome in 2015 with our Launch event at the Exchange. “Retrofitting Affordability” will be published in the first quarter and we anticipate it will be as widely received as “Let There Be Daylight.” We also look forward to being a part of the City’s Retrofit Accelerator. Stay tuned for our programming, schedule to be released at the Launch.

Happy New Year All!