The Commercial Retrofit Opportunity

Advanced building materials and systems available today deliver higher performance—for comparable cost that delivers rapid payback when integrated and considered properly. In the past, window replacement or retrofits were often not cost-effective. With super-insulating performance that also deliver high light to solar gain ratios and visible light transmittance, window replacements and retrofits can be cost-effective in many situations across climate zones and building types.

The Empire State Building retrofit proves the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency building retrofits for tenant-occupied office building owners around the world. In addition to energy cost savings, financial benefits for building owners include:

• Reductions in existing capital improvement program costs
• Reduced utilities budget due to greater efficiencies in energy and water usage
• Reduced building operations budget due to lower maintenance and repair costs
• Increased rent and occupancy due to enhanced value placed on updated services
• Additional income from new tenant service offerings, such as chilled water and emergency power

Source: A Landmark Sustainability Program for the Empire State Building, Jones Lang LaSalle

"All portfolio managers and real estate owners to some extent have been concerned with energy efficiency, and they’ve done small things. What this project is going to show is that it actually makes sense to make large and significant energy efficiency improvements, not the 5 to 10 percent type things, but the 20 to 30 percent and more type of improvements, and that there is a business case for doing so."

- Clay Nesler, VP of Global Energy and Sustainability at Johnson Controls