NYC Secures Major Federal Grant to Support Carbon Emission Reduction Targets For Large Buildings

For Immediate Release: September 9, 2024
CONTACT: [email protected], (212) 393-2126

NYC SECURES MAJOR FEDERAL GRANT TO SUPPORT CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION TARGETS FOR LARGE BUILDINGS

Joint Application from the New York City Department of Buildings, New York University, and Urban Green Council Secures $19.9 Million to Implement Local Law 97

New York, NY -A new federal funding infusion of close to 20 million dollars will advance sustainability goals for residential multifamily buildings, assisting the implementation of Local Law 97 (LL97), the city's nation-leading program to drastically curtail climate-change causing carbon emissions from the city's largest buildings, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) announced today.

DOB's Sustainability Bureau applied for this funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in partnership with New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management (NYU Marron) and Urban Green Council (UGC), which have been strong advocates of LL97 since it was first passed into law in 2019.

"Meeting the climate crisis head-on requires all of us-- but like most 'worth it' things, reducing carbon emissions isn't always easy. Which is why we are so grateful to President Biden and the Department of Energy team for granting our city key funds that will help us help New Yorkers do their part to implement Local Law 97," said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. "The Biden Administration's legacy-defining IRA and BIL programs will help us supercharge the transition to electric vehicles, deliver parkland, reconnect communities torn apart by legacy infrastructure and more."

"The full implementation of LL97 is moving ahead and this welcome funding from the federal government will boost the important work at our Sustainability Bureau," said Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo. "The Adams administration has been committed to a smart, considered rollout of these emission caps, helping building owners achieve their sustainability goals both in the short-term and leading up to 2050."

DOB, NYU Marron and UGC plan to use the grant money to fund the following projects in support of Local Law 97:

• Increase outreach and educational guidance to residential multifamily property owners in state-designated disadvantaged communities (DACs), including scaling up existing public training programs;
• Promote workforce training and development in the green technology sector to generate a larger pool of sustainability professionals for retrofit projects;
• Develop automated audit tools to help building owners better understand how to achieve compliance with the law;
• Create a new citywide database to document progress toward decarbonization;
• Expand publicly-available visualization mapping tools that help the public understand the emissions reduction and energy efficiency work being accomplished in New York City to fight climate change;
• Increase staffing in the DOB's Sustainability Bureau to assist in building outreach and enforcement.

New York City is one of just 19 jurisdictions in the country that DOE's Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP) selected for this round of funding-bestowing the most money of any single city to NYC. Funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the Biden-Harris Administration in 2022, these grants are aimed at helping local governments implement the latest energy efficient and innovative building codes to improve resiliency and sustainability nationwide.

In addition to supporting LL97 implementation in the five boroughs, this round of funding will help create a comprehensive emission reduction playbook which can be replicated by other local jurisdictions. NYU Marron has extensive experience in developing data-driven toolkits for building sustainability initiatives, and will manage the development and expansion of these web-based tools. UGC, a trailblazer in green building education and training of building practitioners in the city for more than two decades, will manage the new efforts to enhance existing industry outreach and workforce development.

LL97 requires approximately 40,000 of New York City's largest buildings to meet increasingly lower greenhouse gas emission limits or face penalties. To meet these new emission limits, buildings must undergo energy efficiency retrofits and take measures to reduce the carbon emissions produced by the operations of their buildings. Since the law was first passed in 2019, the city has conducted extensive outreach to property owners, including hundreds of information sessions online and in-person across the five boroughs. Under the Adams administration, rulemaking at DOB has continued with an eye towards helping property owners reduce emissions on their path towards the 2050 goal of net-zero building emissions.

Recent federal legislation, including the Biden-Harris administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, have made unprecedented amounts of federal funding available for key projects across the country. Recognizing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Mayor Adams formed the Federal Infrastructure Funding Task Force. Under Deputy Mayor Joshi's guidance, that task force evaluates the competitive grant opportunities available, with a focus on new opportunities made possible through both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, and works to break down silos and foster creativity across city agencies. The city has aligned its priorities for high-quality, sustainable, and equitable infrastructure with aggressive and creative grant applications from a wide range of infrastructure agencies. To date, the city has received over $850 million in competitive federal infrastructure grant awards from these sources.

"With just nine months to go before the first LL97 emissions report filing deadline, it is more important than ever that DOB has the resources needed for a robust implementation of the nation's leading building emissions reduction effort," said Laura Popa, Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability at DOB. "Thank you to the DOE for this federal funding, and to our partners at NYU Marron and UGC. We will be able to create new tools that will assist building owners as they work to decarbonize their properties, while also showing other cities how they can replicate our successes in their own backyards."

"New York City is leading the way with its Climate Mobilization Act and this funding will help us reach buildings in environmental justice areas, promote workforce training in the green economy, create a critical database resource for building owners, and expand mapping tools so the public can track our historic progress," said Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice Executive Director Elijah Hutchinson. "Together these programs advance a just transition and help our city bring everyone along to a clean and healthy future."

"Education and training are the bedrock for any change, especially decarbonization," said John Mandyck, CEO of UGC. "We're proud that this award will enable Urban Green to reach thousands of New Yorkers in the communities that need the most help to decarbonize buildings, with access to the knowledge, training, guides, and courses to accelerate compliance with Local Law 97."

"The urgency of climate change necessitates new approaches to understand patterns of energy use and carbon emissions in the urban built environment," said Constantine E. Kontokosta, PhD, Director of Civic Analytics and Associate Professor at NYU Marron. "Through this grant and our exciting partnership with DOB and Urban Green Council, we will be able to develop much-need analytical tools to support the implementation of LL97 and data-driven decision-making for climate action and environmental justice."

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