Guess where the dim bulbs are on Wall Street?

As the craze for renewable energy heats up in investment circles, banks are showing their green side, too. Wall Street companies lowered their lights, cut back on air-conditioning and shut down their signs and advertising displays to do their part to reduce energy use during a punishing heat wave in New York. Nasdaq, for instance, has voluntarily shut off the lights on its Marketsite Tower in Times Square.

“We are making a series of small changes, which we think adds up to a lot,” Goldman Sachs spokesman Peter Rose said. “We are raising temperatures in air-conditioned offices, turning lights off partially or in total in lobbies and little-used floors, pulling down blinds on sunny sides of buildings … People here are aware that conservation is important.”

J.P. Morgan Chase took four of its main facilities in New York, including its headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, “completely off the grid,” operating on emergency backup power generators, spokesman Brian Marchiony said. The company estimates it’s saving New York City and Consolidated Edison about 9.6 megawatts (or 9.6 million watts) of power per day.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=6009