The Climate Decade
Last week, on behalf of the Building Energy Exchange, I gave a presentation on the Climate Mobilization Act that NYC passed in 2019.
Let me summarize the law as briefly as possible: starting in 2024 all buildings over 25,000 SF will be assigned a certain carbon emissions budget, and that any amount above that budget would have a monetary penalty. The budgets are assigned by use or combination of uses and size regardless of the age of the building. So a 50,000 SF apartment building from 1960 would have exactly the same limit as a building of the same size built in 2020, although the latter would have been built with energy codes in place and with a better understanding about efficiency. The assigned budget limits are set to be lowered every 5 years, meaning they become increasingly strict. Buildings are assessed annually and fines are enforced annually, so there are great incentives to modernize. There are exceptions for buildings with affordable housing or houses of worship, but even those buildings must make changes from a prescribed list of options.
The Act has three other components all of which are already in effect. One component is that for any reroofing activity (except for a simple membrane repair) on any building regardless of its size or type, parts or all of the roof should either be covered with photovoltaics or a green roof. Many of you might have seen already building grades, similar to the ones restaurants have, next to building entrances around the city. That is another part of the Act that is in place since October. Finally, the Act outlines funding sources for energy retrofits and new buildings.
What existing buildings will need to do in order to comply with the Act would be to upgrade their windows and in some cases add insulation to the exterior walls, tackle air infiltration through the walls and most importantly replace their current heating and hot water systems with equipment that is using solely electricity. Even existing buildings that are below the size limit that the Act identifies should make similar changes when the appropriate time comes for either equipment to be changed or building repairs to be done.
For new buildings, we should make sure that they are airtight and are equipped with energy recovery ventilation systems; that they are well insulated, have high performing windows and that all thermal bridging is eliminated, and run exclusively in electricity. What I just described are also the Passivehouse principles, and if this is coupled with photovoltaics for on-site energy generation, then we can reach to almost zero emissions.
There has been a paradigm shift. We have now entered the climate decade. Unlike in the past, there is practically no added cost for builders and developers to implement measures to reduce building emissions. Consumers and investors have a desire to go green, there are important innovations that make buildings ever more efficient, and we are finally beginning to see meaningful changes in policy and regulations that incentivize responsible, sustainable buildings and penalize those who lag behind.
There is no question that the local laws that make up the Climate Mobilization Act will help NYC meet its 80x50 plan of decarbonization as well as the state’s commitment for carbon-free energy use. The plan is to eliminate the City’s carbon emissions by mid-century. Completely eliminating fossil fuel combustion from buildings is necessary and that is what the Act is proscribing. This means gas and oil boilers as well as gas cooking are going the way of the telegram. At the same time we need to improve the performance of the buildings so they do not need as much power, even if that power is electricity.
One might wonder, since most of the electricity delivered to NYC currently comes from fossil fuel combustion, how does electrifying help the environment? This is indeed a fair point, but lets keep in mind that electricity is the only energy source that has the ability to be carbon neutral, and that depends on the grid moving towards that direction as well. Three weeks ago, Governor Cuomo outlined the State’s 2021 Agenda for Building the Green Economy, where he mentioned that “we are proposing the largest wind programs in the nation and advancing our green manufacturing capacity and the jobs that go with it.”
The Climate Mobilization Act, like anything we do for environmental sustainability, is part of a collaborative effort. We as architects are responsible for reducing the energy consumed by the buildings we design in order to fully decarbonize at the local level. Meanwhile at the infrastructure level, the power grid needs to transition from fossil fuels to renewables, a move that also saves money. As of 2019 data, coal is standing at $109/MWh, Solar Photovoltaic at $40/MWh and Onshore wind at $41/MWh with prices for renewables poised to drop even more.
Some people would say that making improvements to buildings alone will not solve the climate crisis, and they are right about that. Creating high energy efficient buildings all over the world using the same standards is also not the right solution. It is though part of the solution. Net zero buildings on their own actually rank pretty low in the list of most effective actions for climate catastrophe mitigation according to Project Drawdown, but building and city improvements altogether make an essential component of that effort.
Whenever I come across such pushback, I am reminded of the quote the Dutch inventor Boyan Slat said in 2018 when he was criticized about his invention of cleaning the oceans of plastics, that “humanity can do more than one thing at a time”.
And indeed, we are.
What I’m reading:
AIA
Climate policy: What to expect in 2021
AIA
What Can COVID-19 Teach Us About Climate Change? Experts Weigh In
Metropolis
Year in Review: 9 Sustainable Standouts
World Positive
We Have Entered the Climate Decade
Fast Company
The U.S. rejoined the Paris Agreement. Now comes the hard part
ProPublica
The Climate Crisis Is Worse Than You Can Imagine. Here’s What Happens If You Try.
Illinois News Bureau
New data-driven global climate model provides projections for urban environments
Dezeen
Office of McFarlane Biggar Architects + Designers creates off-grid contemporary cabin
