by Ali Levine
In September of 2014, 125 heads of state and government officials gathered in New York City to discuss the ongoing climate crisis that faces our planet. On the same week, more than 400,000 citizens participated in the People’s Climate March, taking to the streets to demand action to reverse climate change. Given that cities are responsible for nearly 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is imperative that cities commit to a low-carbon future.
Mayor de Blasio has taken heed to this call to action by committing to an 80 percent reduction in New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions, from 1990 levels, by 2050, aptly named the “80×50 plan.” New York City is currently the largest metropolitan area to take this pledge. Other cities include Berlin, Boston, San Francisco, and London, among others. The Mayor has taken actionable steps towards achieving this goal through the release and subsequent implementation of “One City, Built to Last: Transforming New York City’s Buildings for a Low-Carbon Future.”
The “One City” plan lays out a series of 22 actionable initiatives aimed at enhancing and expanding upon Mayor de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Bloomberg’s 2007 Greener Greater Buildings Plan (GGB), which put the city on track to reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and resulted in forward-thinking laws requiring that the City’s largest buildings benchmark and disclose their energy use. The previous plan targeted the City’s largest buildings, representing 2% of the building stock and XX% of the city’s emissions. The new plan aims for deeper savings while also positioning itself as not only an energy efficiency plan, but also “an affordability plan, a public health plan, and an economic development plan,” according to a senior policy analyst in the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability.
“One City,” along with its predecessor GGB, target NYC’s building stock for emissions reductions because of the City’s unique built environment. The building sector makes up 71 percent of the City’s greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, while oil prices are at an unprecedented low, energy costs can make up a large expense for many low-income residents and small business owners in New York City. That is why de Blasio’s plan covers a wide range of buildings, with a particular emphasis on deep retrofits in public buildings and on assisting low-income, multifamily housing to upgrade their buildings to reduce energy burdens and improve health for residents. Another key initiative is a Retrofit Accelerator, which will assist privately own buildings navigate complex financial incentives that currently exist for retrofitting buildings. Together, these initiatives are expected to reduce building emissions by at least 30 percent from 2005 levels and put NYC on track to reach its 80×50 goal.
Through incentives identified by working with the retrofit accelerator program, building owners can elect to take a whole-building approach, or they can take advantage of low-hanging fruit with simpler retrofit measures, such as lighting upgrades. In the image below, Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) displays the potential light energy savings from specific lighting upgrades in an office building. Many of these strategies can also be used in multifamily properties, for example, many buildings in Europe have lighting sensors in common areas such as hallways and staircases.