New York City Local Law 97 puts carbon caps on buildings bigger than 25,000 square feet — the city’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Property managers and the boards they manage are faced with a looming deadline and the threat of thousands of dollars in penalties. The Department of Buildings’ rules for how this will work were only released in October and are still being finalized.
Complying with the law is likely going to be different for each building: The pathway is unique to each building, based on its age, finances, heating and cooling systems and state of maintenance. Buildings will have to comply. It is mandatory. Most affected building owners must comply with the law by 2024.
If owners don’t make a “good faith effort” to comply, as the DOB indicated so far, they could face fines of $268 for every ton of carbon dioxide emissions above the limit. The DOB has not yet defined what constitutes a good faith effort.
The first step for compliance is to figure out whether a building’s emissions would meet the imposed caps and to get a sense of what it would take to shrink those emissions. That means investing now in a study and report.
Building owners, condominium and cooperative board, and managing agents can start by reviewing the building’s classification and other relevant information to determine if the building is subject to the law. If the building is subject to Local Law, retaining an energy auditor now to commission a performance study to benchmark the building’s current emissions output and identify whether, based on the building’s current performance, it is anticipated that the building will be in compliance in 2024 and thereafter, is a good idea. This should be done in conjunction with professional management and counsel.
