Eric Bluestone talks solar strategy

Eric Bluestone and his busi­ness partner Ira Lichtiger have been greening his company’s build­ings with solar panels and other smaller energy systems for years. ​“Depending on your point of view,” Bluestone explained, ​“either the climate bene­fits are the cherry on top, or, if you’re more mission-driven, the economic bene­fits are the cherry. One way or the other, you’re getting both.” 

He cites bene­fits like safer housing for resi­dents, addressing the dire climate crisis, meeting compli­ance with the city’s new laws on carbon emis­sions, and the signif­i­cant economic savings green invest­ments bring.

In his efforts to get these knock-on bene­fits of decar­boniza­tion, Bluestone has discov­ered over the years that he hasn’t needed to take on big, ambi­tious projects to create an energy-effi­cient building from the ground up — though he has built at least one of those. Instead, it’s possible to reap the bene­fits of energy effi­ciency just by starting with what he calls the ​“low-hanging fruit.”

Bluestone’s earliest clean energy invest­ments included lighting retrofit projects: He swapped the lighting in his build­ings from incan­des­cents to compact fluo­res­cent to LEDs, as the tech­nology advanced. Then he began water-saving projects, switching the toilets in his building to 0.8‑gallon, single-button flush toilets — an effi­ciency upgrade from the 1.6‑gallon or larger toilets previ­ously installed — and changing plumbing fixtures to low-flow faucets. Bluestone said he made these moves to ​“reduce not only elec­tric usage through lighting, but also reducing water and hot water, which ulti­mately reduces our gas consumption.” 

He often times solar panel instal­la­tions with more inten­sive reno­va­tions, like roof replace­ments, better insu­la­tion, and building envelopes. While doing these replace­ments, he said, he also forti­fies prop­er­ties with other effi­ciency upgrades, like temper­a­ture-controlled shower valves and smart boiler control systems, which all work in tandem to reduce emis­sions and energy costs, notably in elec­tricity and gas. Investments in these kinds of energy-saving systems, which are often much cheaper, Bluestone explained, could show prop­erty owners a more holistic picture of cost and carbon savings, too. 

He appre­ci­ates that solar panels can also render his build­ings more resilient in the case of power outages. ​“The solar panels would still be func­tional and oper­a­tional if we were off the grid,” he said. Even though indi­vidual units aren’t connected to solar-powered elec­tricity, the solar panels would allow at least some building systems, like common area lighting, to continue running during the day when the sun is out. 

Bluestone says cost and carbon savings are his ulti­mate goal with his port­folio. More effi­cient systems work in tandem to help his group save more money in the long term. He has been a member of several prop­erty owner industry groups for years, and believes that decar­boniza­tion could be a very feasible goal for many other New York City prop­erty owners if they analyzed how much the tech­nology could help them save.

“I’m not sure that every­body is on board yet, [or] seeing the poten­tial savings that they’re going to generate as a worth­while invest­ment,” he said.