Mapping the Carbon Footprint of New York City Real Estate

If one were to imagine New York’s buildings as stony leeches sucking juice from the power grid, which ones would be the fattest, most aggressive subjects? Jill Hubley provides an answer in the form of a swell, interactive map of the city’s real-estate carbon footprint.

New York requires owners of large properties to report their utilities usage to, in the words of the city, “give building owners and potential buyers a better understanding of a building’s energy and water consumption, eventually shifting the market towards increasingly efficient, high-performing buildings.” Hubley has taken the latest data, from 2014, and colored energy-intensive buildings in tan and brown, showing how their consumption results in greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane entering the atmosphere.