BOMA showing industry how to green the bottom line.

Fifteen years ago, BOMA/NY launched its Energy (now Energy/ Sustainability) Committee to make a statement about the need for energy management and conservation, and we haven't stopped talking about it since.

Our 850+ members play a pivotal role in making the Big Apple the Green Apple. As Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said as Keynote Speaker at our March 10 Energy Action Day!, "In the end, it is the people in this room who get the people in the City to save energy, which makes us more competitive--you are going to be the stars. Green buildings attract and retain tenants ... and a green agenda ultimately helps the taxpayers."

As New York building owners and managers, our responsibility is even greater--our dense office building market generates as much as 78% of the greenhouse gases emitted in this area, as opposed to the national average of 18%. But New Yorkers never shrink from a challenge--BOMA/NY was among the first to sign on to BOMA International's Market Transformation and 7-Point Challenge by encouraging all members to reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by 30% by 2012.

For the past five years, we have consistently used member experience in our on-going, "how to" seminars on greening a building bottom's line. Owners and managers share their perspectives, lessons learned and case studies on pursuing LEED or Energy Star certification. Our LEED-certified members have also opened their doors to the building community and hosted information tours of their facilities as part of our seminar program.

The "sold out" seminars at our March 10 Energy Action Day!, where an all-green agenda focused on "protecting your green" while greening the bottom line, armed participants with practical information ranging from how to benchmark for energy efficiency, to all aspects of LEED certification, and purchasing wind and other sustainable forms of energy. Through our Codes & Regulations/ Government Affairs Committee we have worked diligently to advise our members on how PlaNYC2030 will affect day-to day operations, and when Plan components appear impractical, we've made our views known at City Hall and offered realistic solutions.

Our Pinnacle Awards reward our members for their sustainability efforts--30% of the score, at minimum, involves energy conservation programs of tenants and building alike, as well as all environmental initiatives. Nominees often use the award as an incentive to launch or complete sustainability programs, and to ramp up tenant communications to increase compliance in recycling, energy and water use programs. In 2005, we integrated the Earth Award into our Pinnacle competition and this past year, we singled out PlaNYC2030 for the special Henry J. Muller Achievement Award: Recognizing Vision for New York.

And, we have underscored our commitment on the public stage. Three generations of skyline icons lit up emerald green the night of July 21, 2007 (during the BOMA International 100th Anniversary Conference held in New York), to signal our pride in our hometown being the 6th greenest big city in America and our Association's commitment to pursue a green agenda. Just last month on March 28th, we shut down the lights city-wide as part of the global Earth Hour campaign.

Whether sharing insight with a colleague, staging up-to-the minute seminars, opening the doors of our buildings to provide on-site information exchange, or making our voices heard in the halls of government, BOMA/NY will continue to find the ways and means to support a green agenda and talk up that message to our members, the strength behind the skyline.

BY ANGELO J. GRIMA, PRESIDENT, BOMA