Imagine renovating a 102-storey skyscraper while reusing 96 percent of its original windows. That's basically what happened at the Empire State Building. In 2009, the building's management decided to rebuild the building's 6,514 old windows without replacing them with new ones. According to Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the nonprofit organization involved in designing the retrofit, this decision was actually a key component of a much larger renovation process. The entire project is projected to reduce energy consumption by 38 percent in the whole building, saving up to $4.4 million a year once fully implemented, and paying for itself within three years. This initiative also generated 252 jobs in the process.
The windows never left the building
