New York City has introduced a bill that will rank and grade large buildings according to energy efficiency.
The Local Law 95 implemented by the New York Department of Buildings will require structures that are 25,000 square feet (2,322 square metres) and over to report publicly on their data energy and water use.
The protocol, which will come into action early 2020, is intended to encourage buildings to improve their energy efficiency standards. New scores will be produced every year taking into account any amends made to structures.
Buildings to be graded from A to F
Information on the building's energy use will be processed by an online tool created by the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star programme and turned into an "energy efficiency grade", rated from A to F, as reported by the New York Times. The system will also take into consideration a building's size, type and number of occupants.
Buildings will then be required to post these grades in a clearly visible location, similar to how the city's restaurants are graded regarding cleanliness and code violations.
NYC tightens "energy efficiency" scoring
The rules of Local Law 95 stems from the 2018 city bill Local Law 33, which has since been revised with a stricter scoring system.
If a building score was equal to or greater than 20 but less than 50, then it would be graded a C. However, now the range is from 55 to 70.

Before, a D grade was given to those that scored less than 20, but now...