Metered.nyc: New Resource Offers a Look Inside NYC Building Performance

Before New York City implemented its benchmarking law in 2009, seeing how a building performed was about as easy as looking through walls. With Local Law 84, property data became more accessible for owners, managers, consultants, and engineers—but only if they were willing to sift through the city’s 15,000-row spreadsheet. Metered.nyc, a new site from New York’s Urban Green Council, seeks to make interpreting that data as easy as looking through a window.

Designed with input and review by a broad range of industry professionals, Metered combines powerful search functionality with a clear, stylish report card to show metrics, ENERGY STAR Score, energy use, water use, and GHG emissions. Simple and effective histograms mean users can see how their property stacks up to other properties of the same type, and a progress chart shows how a property’s performance has changed over time. By cross-referencing other data sources with the city’s publicly available LL84 data, Metered lets users view information like year built and the date of a property’s last major alteration.

An Explore page helps users dive into the data with filters for property location, size, and year built. Results can be sorted by best to worst (and vice versa) according to a range of metrics, to help potential tenants find top performers- and sustainability consultants to pinpoint properties most in need of help.

Tooltips display when data may be questionable—NYC’s property data is entered individually, which leaves significant room for error—and explains what terms like site EUI and BBL mean.

Perhaps most importantly, a sidebar provides tips, incentives, and advice related to the property they’re viewing. This helps owners and managers find relevant ways to improve sustainability in just a few clicks—a key goal for Urban Green Council.

If you want to get a look inside some of New York’s most famous properties—from the Empire State Building to 30 Rock—take a look at Metered.nyc. It’s as easy as peeking through a window.