The Disconnect Between Energy Letter Grades and Carbon Emissions

Why don’t energy letter grades always correlate with a building’s carbon emissions? Ecosystem’s Ben Milbank recently spoke with Habitat Magazine about this disconnect, referring to a recent project in Union Square in New York City.

 “The building has a low D energy-efficiency grade,” Milbank says. “And even though this project will cut the building’s natural gas consumption by more than 80% and make it fully compliant with the Climate Mobilization Act beyond 2050, we might optimistically get it up to a C grade. That’s because of the disconnect between letter grades — how much energy and water you use per square foot — and the building’s carbon emissions. But this co-op is going to be a very efficient, low-carbon building.” His conclusion: “The letter grade is semi-irrelevant.”

Find out more about this issue at Habitat Magazine’s article.