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September 05, 2025
The Electrification and Decarbonization of 55 Water Street
We’re innovating for impact. 55 Water Street’s electrification and decarbonization initiative leverages thermal management technology to transform one of New York City’s largest properties into a model for sustainable buildings, aligning energy and sustainability goals.
Project At-a-Glance:
The opportunity:
Transform one of the largest commercial buildings in New York City to align with decarbonization goals while maintaining zero disruption to customer operations.
The solution:
- Implemented an industry-first thermal energy system to accelerate building decarbonization through electrified heating and heat recovery, which is three times more efficient than traditional heating methods
- Completed retrofit in 12 months while maintaining full building occupancy
Sustainability outcomes:
This revolutionary approach, which transforms wasted heat generated from cooling processes into usable energy, resulted in
- 70% reduction in steam usage
- 20% improvement in energy efficiency
- helped save $1.5 million in utility costs annually
A breakthrough retrofit at one of New York City’s largest office buildings is redefining what’s possible for infrastructure upgrades and the environment.
It’s just one example of how we're helping solve our customers' big challenges by innovating and delivering solutions that are better for their business and for the environment. Through our Gigaton Challenge, we aim to reduce 1 gigaton of GHG emissions from our customers' footprints by 2030.
A big opportunity
Some say the biggest buildings present the biggest challenges, but at Trane Technologies we see them as the biggest opportunities.
At 3.5 million square feet, 55 Water Street is the largest commercial office building in New York City and the second largest in the nation. With its own ZIP code, 86 elevators, and round-the-clock operations, it requires the infrastructure complexity of managing a small city.
Like many buildings across New York, 55 Water Street relied on aging steam infrastructure that was both costly and inefficient. Plus, with emissions limits tightening, the need for a sustainable solution was clear. Rather than do the minimum to comply, building leadership chose to reimagine the system entirely and turned to Trane to make it happen.
Innovation grounded in trust
A decade of collaboration with the 55 Water Street team had helped to create a strong foundation of trust in Trane’s expertise.
That trust gave 55 Water Street leadership the confidence to say yes when Trane recommended a bold, first-of-its-kind, electrification and decarbonization solution centered on an integrated thermal management system. Commonly referred to as ice storage, electric thermal energy storage ice tanks act like batteries – shifting all or a portion of a building’s heating and cooling electricity needs to off-peak hours while increasing energy efficiency and lowering costs.
Execution without compromise
Completing this level of transformation in a vacant structure would have been difficult, but making it happen while the building remained fully occupied required meticulous planning and constant coordination. To ensure daily operations were unaffected, nearly two-thirds of the construction took place overnight.
“I have a lot of trust with Trane,” said Dan Palino, Chief Operating Officer, 55 Water Street. “It was a big commitment to get a project of this size completed in a year with no disruption to tenants, but I was confident in their ability to get it done.”
Reimagining energy and sustainability possibilities
The full system was installed and operational within 12 months, with steam consumption dropping by approximately 70% and energy use intensity decreasing by nearly 20%. The project also helped save $1.5 million in utility costs per year, helped avoid more than $1 million in annual emissions penalties and qualified for more than $14 million in rebates and tax credits.
One of the things we would love for others to take away from this project is the idea that big things are possible, not just in big buildings, but in any building
Holly Paeper
President, Commercial HVAC Americas, Trane
Today, 55 Water Street is more than a commercial building. It’s a symbol of what is possible when trust and innovation intersect and proves that meaningful change is achievable, even in the most complex built environments in the world.
At Trane, we're not just responding to climate challenges but leading the global movement to solve them, proving that sustainable building solutions can be better for business and better for the world. Big change is possible, and together we can make it happen.
Discover more about the 55 Water Street project and the team that made it happen.
Read more about the history of our collaboration with 55 Water Street.
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