Gotham 360 was very pleased to participate as a Bronze Level sponsor at the 2018 AASHE conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Our team joined sustainability leaders from across North America to exchange ideas, impacting transformative actions that are within sustainability, higher education and surrounding communities.

In July 2010, the Health Department began requiring restaurants in all five boroughs to post letter grades summarizing their sanitary inspection scores to help achieve three goals: 1) to inform the public about a restaurant's inspection results in a simple, accessible way; 2) to improve sanitary conditions and food safety practices in restaurants; and 3) to reduce illnesses associated with dining out.

Following suit, energy efficiency will soon be hitting the public eye.

Beginning in 2020, all buildings in NYC over 25,000 square feet will be required to post an energy grade in a highly conspicuous location, like the letter grades we are used to seeing at the entrance to restaurants. This development is mandated by Local Law 33 - designed to promote energy efficiency, and publicly shame those who do not board the efficiency bus.

Jennifer Kearney, Executive Partner of Gotham 360, spent the week of March 12 - 16, 2018, in Berlin, Germany as one of ten delegates from New York State for a special energy briefing and best practices exchange between New York and the nation of Germany.

After a successful inaugural delegation trip to Berlin in June 2017, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy once again invited policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and energy experts from New York State to participate in a trip to Germany in March 2018.

Each year, Urban Green Council's annual conference tackles an issue or trend relevant to urban professionals in the green building sector. On Wednesday, October 4, the Gotham 360 team was happily present for the lively discussion on this year's theme: It's Electrifying!

The Gotham 360 team attended Greenbuild 2017 in Boston. Each year, Greenbuild brings together experts from all facets of sustainable buildings (and parking lots too!) for several days full of education sessions and an enormous expo hall.

Having several of our core staff at the conference meant that the team could split up and cover the various concurrent education sessions that were relevant to our clients within different industries - who hold different goals and face different roadblocks.

In October, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) held its annual conference, this year in San Antonio, Texas. Gotham 360 attended the conference to hear news from the Association, learn from and exchange ideas with other conference attendees, and stay on the forefront of campus sustainability solutions in order to best serve our higher education clients.

When I introduce myself as a program manager for an energy consulting company, whether at an energy-focused conference or to new acquaintances, I am frequently then asked: "what does that mean?" or "so, what do you do?" When I was first exposed to the nebulous world of energy consulting, I had the same questions. I soon found that it is not an easy question to answer, because there is so much to be done. And when someone asks what kinds of energy consulting Gotham 360 does, the least specific answer is the most accurate answer: "all kinds."

NYU Langone Medical Center received top honors as a water category finalist after participating in this year's 2016 ENERGY STAR National Building Competition: BOOTCAMP. The program encouraged organizations to cut energy and water waste through developing, instituting, and tracking energy and water-saving actions through the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®, the EPA's online measurement and tracking tool.

The Stevens Environmental Club (S.A.V.E.), the Entertainment Committee, Engineers for a Sustainable World, and the Student Faculty Alliance hosted an Earth Day Fair on April 26th as part of an entire week of Earth-related events, which included a beach clean up, sustainability panel discussion, and solar car build.

The Board of Trustees of New York's Barnard College, a women's college affiliated with Columbia University, recently voted to divest from energy companies that deny climate change who are currently within the college's $286 million endowment.

Barnard students have pressed the college to establish a broad divestment pledge, a movement that in the last five years has grown to campuses across the country. Last year, a committee of Barnard trustees, faculty, and students endorsed a proposal that would divest from only fossil fuel companies that seek to deny climate science or thwart efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming.

Many industries are just beginning to understand the impact of utilizing Incentive Management services, which can result in rebates and tax incentives for energy efficient programs and buildings. Gotham360 has partnered with countless organizations including universities, hospitals, and commercial property owners in an effort to take advantage of existing incentive programs.

The East Bronx Healthcare Microgrid was announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo as one of 11 winners to receive a $1,000,000 grant to design a microgrid as part of NY Prize, a statewide initiative focused on modernizing New York City's electricity grid. This project is based on a feasibility study, also funded through NY Prize and completed by Gotham 360.

Set to be one of the world's fastest growing energy consumers, the number of data centers continues to increase rapidly in conjunction with the constant growth of digital content, cloud, e-mail and internet traffic.

With 3 million data centers in the U.S. consuming 70 billion kilowatt-hours in 2014 alone, it's imperative for data centers to take steps towards offering energy efficiency services that focus on reducing energy consumption and lowering costs for industry users.

Data centers must meet the demands of both industries that are tasked with storing large amounts of information and the environment. By working with energy consultants, data centers can focus on reducing energy waste and employing new technology to ensure a successful and sustainable future.

Reducing Energy Waste and Adapting New Technology

Finding, managing, and de-commissioning comatose servers, 30% of which are estimated to exist due to their low visibility is the first step data centers must take to increase energy savings. Data centers can implement a four-step process of identifying underutilized servers that requires minimal effort. Through assessing their visibility, controlling their output, and automating workflow to drive efficiency, centers access immediate cost-energy savings, up to $500 per year, per server, while adding additional network capacity without expanding their footprint.

Data centers can also offer energy efficiency services by employing internet of things (IoT) technology. Facilities that deploy an incremental rollout of software that encompasses IoT to decrease energy costs, can see up to a 40% reduction in wasted energy and a 19% reduction in energy cost savings.

IoT technology creates a hyper-connected environment that allows facilities to be more responsive, dynamic, and capable of reducing excesses in energy-intensive data centers. Facilities that integrate sustainable energy optimization through IoT technology are able to collect, process, and analyze data that allows them to monitor and predict power and equipment failures, reducing wasted energy and increasing cost savings in the process.

As cloud devices and data storage remain popular and energy costs continue to rise, it's imperative for data centers to implement energy efficiency services and technologies that will lower costs and decrease waste. Reducing the number of comatose servers and integrating IoT technology are just two steps for energy-hungry data centers to implement in order to effectively and efficiently become more environmentally and fiscally sustainable

In 2007, I founded Gotham 360 as a full-service energy consulting and management firm dedicated to helping companies source the most innovative and cost-effective energy solutions. Our unique "360-degree" approach focuses on exploring energy from a variety of directions to provide individualized solutions for each client.

Gotham 360 was founded in 2007 when CEO Jennifer Kearney catapulted her expertise of the energy industry into running a full-service energy consulting and management firm. With over 30 years of combined experience, Gotham 360 has since become an influencer in the field of energy management & sustainability, working with companies to source the most innovative and cost-effective solutions available.