"Greener, Greater Buildings Plan" Takes Off at New WTC

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently joined law firm WilmerHale's co-managing partner William J. Perlstein and World Trade Center developer Larry A. Silverstein at the signing of WilmerHale's 7 World Trade Center lease - the nation's first to incorporate groundbreaking language that promotes enhanced energy efficiency and sustainability.

Under traditional leases, building owners are responsible for the upfront cost of energy efficiency improvements, but tenants are the immediate beneficiaries of those upgrades, in the form of reduced energy costs. Because owners don't share this benefit, they have little incentive to invest in energy upgrades. The new lease language was crafted by industry leaders working with the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability to allow tenants like WilmerHale and owners like Silverstein Properties to share the costs, as well as the benefits, of energy efficiency improvements.

“This agreement between Silverstein Properties and the law firm Wilmer-Hale breaks new ground in the field of energy conservation - and we expect it will be a pioneering model for commercial leases,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “This is part of our broad campaign to increase the energy efficiency of large buildings all across the city. When it is fully realized, this ‘Greener, Greater Buildings Plan’ will be the equivalent of making a city the size of Oakland, California, completely carbon neutral.”