As chairman of the Proptech & Innovation Committee at NYU Schack, I’m fortunate to address matters and set goals most dear to me. With the overarching goal to provide greater awareness to the NYU community as it relates to real estate innovation, I curated my approach into four buckets: found a student-led real estate publication, moderate panel discussions with leaders in the industry, partner with proptech venture capital firms to give entrepreneurial students access to proper resources, and create ties with organizations in the realm of sustainability in our built environment.
In 2012, NYU achieved its 30 percent emissions reduction goal five years ahead of schedule. The next set of climate goals is to reach a 50 percent reduction by 2025 and carbon neutrality by 2040. NYU’s greenhouse gas reduction progress will increase resilience, lower maintenance and insurance costs, and make buildings quieter, healthier, and more comfortable for their occupants. NYU accounts for almost 0.5 percent of all New York City GHG emissions from buildings.
Furthermore, to aid the achievable goals set by NYU, targeted attention towards building infrastructure is a priority. For color, the buildings and construction sector accounted for 36% of final energy use and 39% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, 11% of which resulted from manufacturing building materials and products such as steel, cement and glass.
In order to achieve the goals set, we must aggressively reduce energy consumption in our buildings.
NYU employs strategies to reduce energy in academic and office buildings through conservation, efficiency methods and on-site power generation. NYU’s energy-saving strategies include standards for green construction and renovations; large-scale retrofits; operational innovations through building management systems, advanced controls, active monitoring, and operator training.
To facilitate and better understand the ongoing efforts at NYU, I spoke with Cecil Scheib, Chief Sustainability Officer at NYU. Please find the Q+A below:
JM: Let’s start off with your background. I’d love to learn more about your career path which ultimately brought you into the NYU ecosystem.
CS: Sure. Well, I studied civil engineering at Stanford in the late 80s, early 90s. I developed a strong interest in the environment around that time. After college, I helped found an eco-village, located in Northeast, Missouri, where our intention was to demonstrate sustainable lifestyles so that people could come and live a healthy, happy, fulfilling and successful life. At the time, we had solar panels, composting, organic food and green construction, but there was no place you could go and live while doing those things at once. Also, it was a pretty different type of construction compared to here in New York because they were straw bale houses with natural plasters from sand, lime and clay– some of which were on site. They were 100% off grid. When we took our ecological footprints, we had a 90% lower impact than the average American. Basically using 10% of the energy, 10% of the carbon emissions, and 10% of the water. So, it was a great example that it is possible to live a modern lifestyle and have much less of an impact.
JM: It sounded so exciting when you were touching on the eco-village. It reminds me a lot about what’s beginning to gain interest as with the three P’s– people, planet, profit. Did you guys embody that idea of living sustainably within the means of your people, as well as the planet, all while generating a dollar profit on that project?
CS: You know, part of the social orientation of the eco-village, in addition to the sustainability orientation, there was a strong aesthetic about sharing, which I think is part of sustainability. So, for example, people didn’t own private vehicles or cars at the village. We had an internal car sharing co-op. So, we shared two or three vehicles among 75 people. So that’s one way of having a much lower impact, but also it means you’re going to make some social choices such as ‘Hey, we’re going into town. I need to run errands and you have a doctor’s appointment. So, I’ll wait around when I’m done with my errands so we can drive home together once you’re done with your doctor’s appointment.’ So, it makes some choices and also a very strong aesthetic about doing it yourself. A lot of people were gardening or growing their own food, building their own houses and even making their own entertainment. For years, people were living on very little money. I was living on about $7,000 a year and with that was able to build a two-story, six bedroom straw bale house. For me, and the people I lived with, we had ethernet in every room and all the modern conveniences, including solar panel systems and batteries that ran the whole place. Of course we didn’t have urban rents, but if you’re willing to do things for yourself, it’s possible to live with a lot less money.
JM: It reminds me a little bit of a kibbutz in Israel. I was always amazed with the simplicity of the citizens’ living situations and just how functional they were. They weren’t making a tremendous amount of money but they were living within their means. Why don’t we jump into what’s exciting you today about leading out NYU’s ongoing sustainability efforts.
CS: Well, there’s so much going on right now and of course it’s been a hard year for everyone, especially for students. So maybe a little good news in terms of sustainability is a good thing. This year we ranked number 43 on the Princeton Review list of top green colleges. We’ve been on the big list before but never cracked the top 50. So that’s great. Another ranking we got this year through STARS, a Higher Ed sustainability rating system, got gold both times, putting us in the top 30% of international institutions ranked. People probably assume that those rankings are about our operational performance, like things with our carbon reduction. And that is part of it, but it’s actually largely based upon the efforts of faculty and students. This is all part of the STARS ranking, as much based on academics and engagement as it is on operation. So, that’s really a testament to the work that so many departments are doing all across the university and not just the Office of Sustainability. So, that’s super exciting to see the recognition. Climate agenda has been strong for a long time. We’ve reduced greenhouse gas emissions intensity by about 30% since we started, which is saving about $15 million a year from our energy budget. That’s money that can be put back into the NYU academic mission. So we think that’s great.
JM: You touched on the topic of students and faculty playing a part with NYU’s ongoing efforts. It’s not just within the NYU organization, it’s also the people within the building that make a difference. I’d love to hear how you believe students and faculty can get more involved and what we can do on our end to make a positive impact.
CS: Well, NYU is a large institution, right. We’re like an 80,000 person community. One quarter of all New York City emissions come from NYU. When we cut our emissions by 30%, that was like a .1% cut in citywide emissions. You could literally see NYU’s efforts on New York City carbon emissions. That is the result of a team effort of everyone, that’s not something as the chief sustainability officer I can do for people. I mean, it sounds like such old advice, but sometimes it’s true. It boils down to, ‘do you turn things off when you leave the room.’ These things really add up. So, what can students do to help reduce energy use, energy costs and carbon emissions? Turn things off when you’re not using them. On the other end, I’m well aware of the massive effect a college’s experience can have on what you choose as a career and how you go about it. So as much as I’m interested in saving energy, I’m interested in what students are learning and what they’re talking to each other about. And again, I know from personal experience how much of what I learned was not from faculty, but from other students and communicating with them. That’s why my office spends so much time working with student clubs and talking with students, like yourself, and try to keep involved to help out any way we can with what students are doing to educate each other and themselves both about what needs to happen at the personal level, but also at the political and corporate level. If we’re going to address this crisis, all of these parts have to be working together.
JM: I’m curious to hear more about the current and future methods in place which relate to real estate sustainability.
CS: As you are aware of, over 96% of NYU onsite emissions come from buildings. We don’t have a huge fleet of campus vehicles. Any path to reaching our carbon goals has got to go through buildings and that’s similar to the city– three quarters of its emissions are for buildings. Truly, real estate professionals are absolutely critical to getting this right. Real estate professionals are necessary to help save the world. That’s what it boils down to. I think part of what needs to happen is we need to stop looking at sustainability as something that is edgy, new or interesting. It has to be something that is completely normal and routine. For instance, if you’re a prospective tenant looking for space, you don’t ask the broker about the fire safety of the space– you just assume that that’s taken care of. We need the same thing for sustainability. Our buildings need to be just as sustainable as they’re safe. Right now, when I talk to brokers and say like, ‘Oh, do you sell the green features of your building?’ They respond with, ‘No one asks about those things, so we don’t tell them.’ So my answer to your question is, people need to be so educated about these things until they become so familiar that it’s just like second nature, not what’s necessarily cutting edge.
JM: Right on. At this point, it’s not a nice have. It’s a must have.
SC: It’s true. How many times do you get off the elevator and there’s one light switch that turns on and off all the lights on a 30,000 square foot floor? So, if you’re there working late at night in one corner of the floor, you’ve got to have 30,000 square feet of lights on. We got to stop doing that.
JM: Wrapping up, I wanted to ask about what advice you have for the next generation of real estate professionals.
CS: First of all, I think people need to be aware of this issue and what their role in it is. Educate yourself. Learn the difference between a sustainable building and an unsustainable building and how we can make things better. I really recommend involvement in professional associations that deal with this so students can talk to other people who are working on it and support other peer groups. I am on the board of a nonprofit called Urban Green Council, which is the leading voice for green buildings in the city. I recommend students to check that out. In fact, because NYU is a member, if you or other students want to attend events, let me know. We have a certain amount of complimentary admissions so students can attend free of charge. Go to urbangreencouncil.org to check out the upcoming events.
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