Going Green: Empire State Building Inks Wind Power Deal

Owners of the iconic Empire State Building have been making major investments in the building's infrastructure to improve its desirability to class A tenants, which command higher rents.

It has begun a process of improving the building's HVAC efficencies, and has retrofitted insulated glass panels that reduce heat transmission and make the building more efficient.

Now, it has inked a two-year deal to purchase wind power to cover the energy costs for the building.

"It was a natural fit for us to combine 100% clean energy with our nearly completed, ground-breaking energy efficiency retrofit work," building owner Anthony Malkin said.

And what's good for the environment is expected to be good for business too, he said.

"Clean energy and our nearly 40% reduced consumption of watts and BTUs gives us a competitive advantage in attracting the best credit tenants at the best rents," Malkin said.

The ESB will be buying its power from the Green Mountain Energy Company.

The wind power buy is more of a publicity issue than the real heavy lifting done by reducing the energy footprint of the building by retrofitting all the windows in the building with high efficiency glass panels while retaining the building's classic exterior.