Code Development NYC Codes Sustainability Reference

Local Law 84: NYC Benchmarking Law

The NYC Benchmarking Law, Local Law 84 of 2009 as amended, requires buildings to annually assess the efficiency of their building’s energy and water consumption. First enacted in 2009, this law has set the foundation for sustainable decision-making for NYC building owners.

The NYC Benchmarking Law standardizes the benchmarking process by requiring building owners to submit their annual energy use in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) online benchmarking tool, Energy Star Portfolio Manager® (ESPM), by May 1st of every year. The ESPM property types allow building energy performance to be measured against similar buildings nationwide. By requiring buildings to benchmark, the NYC Benchmarking Law identifies buildings that underperform compared to similarly situated buildings, allows those building owners to easily identify best practices for efficiency improvements from similar buildings, and encourages changes to building operations and maintenance that will result in reduced costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Covered Buildings

As it appears in the records of the department of finance

a building that exceeds 25,000 gross square feet (2323 m²)
two or more buildings on the same tax lot that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet (9290 m²)
two or more buildings held in the condominium form of ownership that are governed by the same board of managers and that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet (9290 m²), or
a City building.

Covered Buildings List (CBL)

NOTE: The Covered Buildings List is sorted by the property’s 10-digit borough, block, and lot number (BBL). To find your building on the list, select Control F (CTRL + F) on your computer keyboard to open a search dialog box, and enter your property’s BBL.

To find your property's BBL number, please review your latest property tax bill from the Department of Finance (DOF) by visiting the DOF Property Tax Bill search. Properties listed in the following Covered Buildings List are required to benchmark their 2023 calendar year energy and water consumption prior to May 1, 2024:

All properties on this list must submit energy consumption data to the City through a benchmarking report. If the property is marked as Yes in the Required to report automated water data from DEP? Y/N column, water consumption data will have to be requested from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and must also be submitted in the report. To request a temporary exemption from reporting due to a demolition, a new building (NB) permit, or when a building has not yet obtained its first TCO, email sustainability@buildings.nyc.gov.

A property's status can change from year to year, so be sure to review the newest Covered Buildings List (CBL) every year. A new CBL is made available every February. Property owners are also notified of their property requirement to comply every November in their property tax bills prior to when the new CBL is posted online. If you are not receiving your property tax bills at the correct address, or your CBL address is incorrect, please update your address by visiting http://nyc.gov/changemailingaddress, or contact the Department of Finance (DOF) at sustainablebuildings@finance.nyc.gov. You can also see a property’s tax bill online.

Exceptions

Exceptions: The term covered building shall not include:

Any building owned by the city that participates in the tenant interim lease apartment purchase program
Real property classified as Tax Class 1 (most one- to three-family homes)
Garden style apartments (as certified by a registered design professional)

Expand All Collapse All

Benchmarking Requirements

Building owners may assign a representative to work with the building operating staff to submit the benchmarking report.

Click a topic, or press the enter key on a topic, to reveal its answer.

Check the LL84 Covered Buildings List for your property every year.

The buildings that meet the definition of covered building (above) as identified on this list must submit energy consumption data to the City through a benchmarking report.

If the property is marked as Yes in the Required to report automated water data from DEP? Y/N column, water consumption data will have to be requested from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and must also be submitted in the report.

.

To request a temporary exemption from reporting due to a demolition, a new building (NB) permit, or when a building has not yet obtained its first TCO, email sustainability@buildings.nyc.gov.

.

NOTE: Compliance takes place at the level of an individual building (as designated by a Building Identification Number, or BIN), even though the identifying information in the CBLs are tax lots (as designated by a Borough-Block-and-Lot number, or BBL).

.

If you believe your property is erroneously listed on the Covered Buildings List due to the square footage of your building, contact DOF at sustainablebuildings@finance.nyc.gov. Please include the following in the email:

- borough, block, and lot number of the building
- contact information: name, email address and/or telephone number
- explanation of your dispute.

If an account was previously created, review the building details and update them accordingly. In particular, the property type must reflect how the building is currently being used.

Enter required building characteristics, including the primary ESPM property type.

If you are benchmarking a building for the first time, you must first enter characteristics of the building (size, completion status, year built, etc.) and primary and secondary (when applicable) property types. You may find it helpful to create and fill out a data collection worksheet first, to help you do the necessary research before you enter the data into ESPM.

Buildings with a Single Property Use

For buildings with a single use, the ESPM property types Other and Mixed Use are not acceptable as a valid primary property type. Please email sustainability@buildings.nyc.gov if you experience difficulty matching the building use to one of the property types listed in ESPM. All data entry related to property usage is subject to audit by the Department.

Buildings with Multiple Property Uses

For buildings with multiple uses, follow the ESPM guidelines for reporting of mixed-use buildings. Refer to the Property Uses section in Portfolio Manager FAQs for detailed instructions.

Benchmarking a Campus.

To complete this and subsequent steps, you are strongly encouraged to study the training materials to become familiar with ESPM. The EPA offers a range of courses and webinars available at https://www.energystar.gov/buildings/training/ that will train you in how to use ESPM.

Collect whole building energy data (and water data, if required) from utilities.

The energy and water (if applicable) consumption of the entire building must be reported at the level of an individual building (as designated by a Building Identification Number, or BIN).

NOTE: This is a change from prior practice where reports and violations took place at the level of the Lot/BBL.

To obtain whole building energy consumption data for benchmarking, you will need to obtain tenant consumption data in addition to base building data. Request whole building energy consumption data directly from the utilities. Visit the Energy and Water Data page for more information.

If you are required to benchmark your water use and you have not previously shared your property with the DEP to collect the water data, follow these instructions.

If your building uses fuel oil or other energy that is NOT provided by Con Edison or National Grid, create meters under the Energy tab as needed. Then enter energy use data into ESPM manually, by uploading a spreadsheet.

Confirm and enter BBL and BIN information (mandatory fields).

Check that your property BBL on your Property Tax Bill matches to the BBL on the CBL. Go to the DOB Buildings Information System (BIS) to access your property profile.

In the Search by Property section enter your property's BBL number from the CBL and hit GO:
Look at the top right corner of the Property Profile Overview to find your building Block, Lot and BIN Make sure to correctly copy and keep this information for your records. These numbers will be needed to enter your BBL and BIN information into Portfolio Manager® in the 10-digit BBL and 7-digit BIN format described below.

NOTE: Failure to accurately input the correct BBL and BIN information may result in a violation.

Enter Your Property BBL

In Portfolio Manager®, click on the Details tab, locate the Unique Identifiers (IDs) section, and click on the Edit button. Navigate down to the Standard IDs section. Select the NYC Borough, Block and Lot (BBL) field from the pick list and enter the BBL in the form N-BBBBB-LLLL, using the Block and Lot information you obtained from the DOB website, where:
N is your property's borough represented by a number. Borough numbers are as follows:

Manhattan = 1, Bronx = 2, Brooklyn = 3, Queens = 4, Staten Island = 5

BBBBB; is the 5-digit Block number with additional leading zeros entered to the left as needed

Example: ‘Block: 845’ = 00845

LLLL is the 4-digit Lot number with additional leading zeros entered to the left as needed

Example: ‘Lot: 27’ = 0027

BBL Example: A correct BBL entry for a building in Queens, with Block: 234, and Lot: 56, would be entered in the NYC Borough, Block and Lot (BBL) field as: 4-00234-0056.

NOTE: When entering a multi-building property as a campus, it is necessary to enter multiple BBLs in the Parent property. Multiple BBLs should be entered in the field separated by a semi-colon (;) without spaces.

Example: 4-00234-0056;4-00234-0057;4-00234-0058

Enter Your Property BIN

Once you have entered your BBL, click on Add another, locate the NYC Building Identification Number (BIN) field in the Standard IDs and enter your building 7-digit BIN number.

NOTE: For BBLs with multiple BINs, each BIN must be entered in the same field separated by a semi-colon (;) without spaces.

Example: 1234567;2345678;3456789

Check your data for errors and completeness.

Check all energy and water consumption data for your property.
Check that energy consumption data for the entire year (January 1 - December 31, inclusive) has been entered for each meter associated with the property.
If you are required to benchmark your water usage, check that DEP has uploaded water consumption data for the entire year (January 1 - December 31, inclusive).
Use the Portfolio Manager® Error Checker.
Check your submitted data by clicking the Check for Possible Errors button on the Summary tab of each of your properties. Review and resolve all alerts.
Review your account for common errors.
Make sure that your Energy Use Intensity (EUI) data is realistic; and is no lower than 5 kBtu/sq ft or greater than 1,000 kBtu/sq ft.
Check the basic information and property uses in the Details tab for each building of a property to be sure that gross floor area for the building is not zero, and floor areas for all property uses add up to the total gross floor area.

If you do not know how to correct your errors, please contact the NYC Sustainability Help Center at HELP@NYCsustainability.org or (212) 566-5584, Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Submit usage to the City by May 1 through ESPM.

Before submitting your report, please review the Benchmarking Checklist to ensure that you have completed all the necessary steps. The benchmarking deadline for data from calendar year 2023 is: May 1st, 2024.

To complete the benchmarking process, the City's reporting template must be uploaded into ESPM and submitted to the City. Click on the Submission Instructions link below for directions on how to submit your data. If you are already familiar with the submission instructions, click on the reporting template link below to send the benchmarking report.

Once you complete the submission process, you should receive the ESPM confirmation email (Data Release Receipt) with attached excel spreadsheet confirming your submission. If you receive an error message(s) from sustainability@buildings.nyc.gov following your submission, make sure to correct the errors as per email(s) sent to you and resubmit your report to the City.

Please retain the ESPM confirmation email for a minimum of 3 years as proof of your submission.

How to Submit usage data to the City by May 1 through Portfolio Manager®

The NYC Sustainability Help Center is the one-stop-shop for information, assistance, and answers to your questions about the benchmarking process. Trained staff will walk you through benchmarking steps, directly provide or point you to training and informational resources, and help you resolve problems so that you can meet the May 1 deadline with time to spare. You can send your questions to Help@NYCsustainability.org, or call (212) 566-5584.