Castellan Real Estate Partners, a fully integrated investment company, owns and manages multifamily properties in New York City. The firm’s leadership, headed by managing partner John Salib, has devoted extensive effort to upgrading its properties in line with today’s “green” building standards, including weatherization and the addition of new boilers that can run on either oil or natural gas. Castellan Real Estate Partners is one of a number of forward-looking companies in the city, which now ranks among the most environmentally conscious in the world.
As of mid-2017, New York ranked as the city with the most compliant square feet under LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, with more than 5 million LEED-certified square feet of building space. Under its “One City: Built to Last” plan, New York is set to lower building-generated toxic emissions by almost a third by the year 2025.
The current century has seen other major strides in New York City’s environmental stewardship. In 2005, the city committed to promoting green building standards through its adoption of a pioneering local ordinance that requires new construction to earn LEED ratings and conserve water and energy.
Three years after this accomplishment, New York City elected to submit its building codes to review by the Urban Green Council so the city could update its regulations in more environmentally friendly ways. With the 2009 passage of the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, the city passed the nation’s most far-reaching codification of laws designed to foster energy-efficient construction and decrease waste and pollution.
