Dan Egan, vice president for sustainability and utilities at Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), joined Nareit for a video interview at Nareit’s 2018 ESG Forum in Seattle.
In 2017, Vornado won Nareit’s Leader in the Light Award in the diversified category. This marks the eighth successive year that Vornado has been recognized by Leader in the Light.
Egan addressed how changes in regulations or incentive programs have impacted Vornado’s approach to sustainability.
As a REIT that is heavily concentrated in New York, Egan said Vornado is focused on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “ambitious” carbon reduction agenda that has resulted in new laws enacted by the city council. One such law would require buildings to display a letter grade in their lobbies, reflecting their level of energy efficiency.
Egan said “increasingly stringent” changes to the New York energy code will impact how Vornado develops new assets and could force the company to retrofit existing assets.
Meanwhile, Egan highlighted Vornado’s reduction in energy use of more than 15 percent since the beginning of its sustainability program in 2009. He noted that the reduction reflects energy use controlled by Vornado as the landlord, and energy use controlled by individual tenants.