Stamford Advocate
Published 9:40 pm, Wednesday, October 8, 2014
STAMFORD -- In Stamford, like other cities, green building standards that use energy-efficient
materials and technology have become the norm across new projects, be it housing or offices. But in terms of the broader environmental impact, planners say the city still has a long way to go. The vast majority of its older buildings have to make upgrades that significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
To address that problem, Stamford will take part in a national program that aims to reduce the
environmental impact of commercial and large-scale buildings. Known as Stamford 2030, the
program seeks to enlist property owners, community stakeholders and other professionals to
establish a common goal of lowering energy and water consumption along with carbon emissions from transportation.
On Thursday, Mayor David Martin, along with other members of the city's business community, is expected to announce the initiative at a press conference in Landmark Square.
The program, which was brought to Stamford by the Business Council of Fairfield County, will launch with 22 founding members. Of that number, a dozen are property owners and managers that have signed on to participate. They include Reckson, Jonathan Rose Companies, The Ashforth Company, CBRE, Charter Oak Communities, and the City of Stamford. Designed to be a voluntary initiative led by the private sector, the program will collect data from building owners for benchmarking purposes but not make the information public. In New York City, large commercial and residential buildings are required to both report and publicly
disclose their energy usage.
The 2030 project was started by Architecture 2030, a nonprofit that seeks to address climate change by changing the built environment. The program has mapped out ambitious goals: a 10 percent reduction in energy and water usage, and carbon emissions from transportation by 2015, and a 50 percent reduction by 2030.