91ÊÓƵ

New York City’s Empire State Building yesterday, an announcement that, when it hit our inboxes, elicited a simultaneous audible response of “oh, cool” from more than half of our reporting staff.

Good for you, Empire State Building! I think what makes this a significant event is not the building itself, but the fact that such a well-known structure has validated the LEED system, and green renovations in general, by dedicating itself to the program right now.

LEED is in the midst of an update/overhaul for 2012 – which looks to me like an attempt to make the program stricter, and possibly performance-based. That will be good, because LEED needs to make sure it doesn’t look like “just a branding opportunity” or a fad. There are other green building rating programs (like the Living Building Challenge) that are working to create much more energy-conscious buildings, and though LEED probably won’t make projects meet those strict standards, it should be able to show that it’s making the country more energy-efficient, one building at a time.

But back to the Empire State Building, here are some numbers on the project: $550 million renovation, 38 percent expected energy reduction, $4.4 million expected annual energy cost savings. That’s pretty good for a 80-year-old, 2.85-million-square foot skyscraper.

Photo by via Flickr