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Reducing Carbon Emissions
With Local Law 97’s ambitious set of gas emission reduction goals, building owners may feel that they are carrying a heavy burden of making their properties as efficient as possible to maintain compliance. But with the right approach and technology, meeting Local Law 97’s requirements is well within reach.
Below, we will explore how energy modeling can help you reduce your emissions and achieve maximum efficiency in your buildings.
Local Law 97 & Steps to Compliance
New York City’s Local Law 97 (LL97) sets strict regulations on the number of greenhouse gas emissions allowed from buildings larger than 25,000 square feet. The law requires these buildings to reduce their emission intensity by 40% between 2024 and 2030. This means that each year, owners must find ways to reduce their building’s emissions or face financial penalties from the city.
Here are a few steps to keep in mind when assessing your plan to become compliant with LL97:
- Determine your building size: Determine if your building exceeds 25,000 feet and falls within the constraints of the regulations.
- Assess your building’s current emissions: Building owners can use energy modeling to assess current conditions and plan for the future. A thorough model will include many scenarios to capture essential nuances in building operations that have opportunities for greenhouse gas emission reduction.
- Determine how you can reduce emissions: Once you understand where your building’s energy emissions are coming from, you can identify ways to reduce them. Building owners can use energy modeling to predict energy use for different scenarios. With this information, building owners can make improvements in line with LL97 initiatives.
- Develop an emissions reduction plan: Using the information from your energy modeling analysis, develop a plan to reduce your building’s greenhouse gas emissions. This plan should include your goals, timelines, and strategies. With information from an energy model, building owners can easily create a plan to directly target inefficient energy usage.
- Implement your plan: Implement new strategies outlined within your reduction plan. This might involve making system changes, or changing your energy usage.
- Monitor and report your progress: Continue to monitor your building’s emissions annually and report your progress to the city to remain compliant. Energy modeling is able to provide owners with up-to-date reports on their gas emissions to keep reduction efforts on track and continue to identify areas for improvement.
- Stay informed: Keep up to date with any changes to the law and greenhouse gas reduction initiatives in New York City.
Energy Modeling as a Tool
Energy modeling is an invaluable tool when it comes to meeting Local Law 97 compliance requirements in New York City. Understanding how your building’s energy efficiency metrics enables you to make informed decisions about projects that will benefit your bottom line while helping to lower your greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. With access to analytics tools that drive accuracy in modeling outputs, you’ll be able to set realistic targets that comply with LL97.
NEO is an easy-to-use real-time energy modeling tool that allows building owners the opportunity to analyze a building’s performance in order to remain compliant with local laws and regulations. With accurate modeling results in seconds, building owners can interpret data points to identify areas of energy-saving opportunities. By identifying these opportunities, building owners can move towards reducing their emissions and reach Local Law 97’s ambitious energy goals. To learn more about how NEO can help you move towards Local Law 97 compliance, talk to our team today.
