Navigating Local Law 97

New York City’s 2019 Climate Mobilization Act includes a goal to reduce overall carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The City’s first big milestone arrives in 2030: by then, New York buildings will need to collectively cut their carbon emissions by 40 percent. Intermediate reductions begin in 2024.

Is my building subject to Local Law 97?

An estimated 50,000 residential and commercial buildings are subject to the carbon cap (measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide per square foot). 

Buildings larger than 25,000 square feet in the 10 Building Code Occupancy Groups are regulated under this law. Generally, if your building is subject to NYC’s benchmarking law and you submit annual water and energy use, you are required to comply with Local Law 97. 

A list of buildings subject to the benchmarking law can be found here (opens an Excel spreadsheet). Search for your building by its 10-digit Borough-Block-Lot (BBL) number. 

Not sure of your BBL?

Find it on the NYC Department of Finance website.

Note 

• Mixed-use buildings have limits that reflect their specific percentage of occupancy groups. 

• Hospitals and income-limited units are regulated under a separate timeline. 

How much carbon does my building emit now?

Visit Metered.nyc and enter your building’s BBL or the street address in the green search bar.

Once your building is located, scroll down to the green highlighted “GHG Emissions / sq. ft.” bar to view the carbon intensity for the building. This value depends on an emissions factor applied to each source of energy used (e.g., fuel oil, natural gas, electricity, district steam) based on its associated carbon pollution. Metered.nyc uses emission factors from EPA’s Portfolio Manager Tool. 

You can calculate your building’s annual carbon emissions by multiplying the value in the green box by the building’s total area (square feet). 

How much do I need to reduce my building’s carbon emissions?

High time for high performance

The law

Last year the New York City Council passed a package of laws called The Climate Mobilization Act. The package of laws includes items relating to financing, renewable energy generation and storage, and green roofs. 

Local Law 97, otherwise known as the Building Emissions Law, is the cornerstone of the groundbreaking legislation. Buildings contribute nearly 70 percent of NYC’s carbon emissions, and they’re responsible for about 95 percent of electricity use in the city, much of which is used for heating and cooling. 

Go big or go home

The City’s goal is to reduce overall carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. It’s one of the most ambitious climate change laws on the books. The City’s first big milestone arrives in 2030: by then, New York buildings will need to collectively cut their carbon emissions by 40 percent. Intermediate reductions begin in 2024.

An estimated 50,000 residential and commercial buildings are subject to a carbon cap, or intensity limit (measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide per square foot). Buildings larger than 25,000 square feet in the 10 Building Code Occupancy Groups are regulated under the law. Mixed-use buildings have limits that reflect their specific percentage of occupancy groups. Income-limited units and hospitals are regulated differently with a separate timeline. 

Unlike many other cities with climate change laws, the carbon caps are enforceable in New York City. Building owners will be levied fines of $268 for every ton of carbon dioxide over their cap. Go one ton over, and it’s a nominal fee. But some of the city’s biggest carbon emitters could face penalties of $1 million or more if they don’t comply with the new regulations. Skipping required reporting will also result in hefty monthly fines.

Where the rubber meets the road

Initial carbon savings can be achieved through operational and controls changes. Urban Green estimates those adjustments will require an investment of $1.75- to $2.7-billion.

However, the vast majority of carbon savings will come from infrastructure retrofits to the tune of $14.8- to $21.6-billion. 

Windows can be a big part of that savings equation. There’s a reason the Empire State Building built a temporary window factory onsite to retrofit 6,514 double-hung windows with high performance models ten years ago. That move reduced energy costs for the iconic Art Deco landmark by more than $400,000 per year. 

Broken, single pane, or even older replacement windows can be swapped out for high performance units that utilize low-e coatings to reduce thermal gain or argon-filled panes to improve the insulating capacity. Not only does this save carbon emissions, but it saves on heating and cooling bills and improves occupant comfort.  

The Climate Mobilization Act recognizes the immense financial investment required to reduce the City’s carbon footprint. It included a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing tool to offer building owners up to 100 percent funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The PACE loan has low interest rates, repayment terms of 30 years, and little to no upfront costs. The loans are repaid through the property’s tax bill, do not balloon, and remain with the building upon sale. 

Modern materials and technologies mean that retrofitting or replacing windows doesn’t mean sacrificing aesthetics. Historical Windows has a deep stable of high performance windows and doors for new construction, Landmark, and contemporary projects.

Ed Silva Joins the Team as Field Manager

Ed Silva joins the Historical Windows team as our Field Manager.

With his entire career spent in the window and door industry, Ed’s expertise covers virtually every material and installation technique out there.

As a manager and master mechanic, his 35 years of experience is already an asset to our team and our projects.

Welcome, Ed!

Our COVID-19 Reopening Plan

We hope this communication finds you, your colleagues, and your loved ones are faring well during this challenging time. As we begin to emerge from a global situation that is gradually stabilizing, we would like to update you on Historical Windows’ current and future operational plans.

In March we seamlessly transitioned our office to remote operations having initiated the capacity and functionality to do so well over a year ago. Consequently, throughout this time, we have continued to service our customers by providing a full array of project support including project quoting, shop drawings, landmark permit filings, and order processing.  Just last week we received authorization to resume work at one of our jobsites and to the joy of our entire staff our field operations are now up and running again. Our readiness to have our crews safely mobilized at a moments’ notice is the result of our early and ongoing efforts to have a comprehensive plan in place that focuses on safety and is specifically aimed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

We are very fortunate that the entirety of Historical Windows’ staff has maintained good health in this new year.  We feel that initiating safe measures at the onset has boded well for us.  In looking forward to the re-opening of the New York Metro area we are sensitive to how some may feel tentative during the re-entry phase considering that in many cases our workplace setting may also be your home or office. Consequently, we would like to share information with you that demonstrates our overarching commitment to responsibly adjust our showroom and field operations to the times. In brief our plan includes:

• Educating and training staff on personal and workplace safety.

• Enforcing safe protection practices in the workplace/space.  

• Providing our staff with private transportation to and from each jobsite.

• Outfitting each staff member with their own protection supply kit.  

• Daily screening questionnaire and temperature recording for every staff member.

• Reducing movement outside of the work area until the end of the workday.

• Daily changing from street to workplace attire.

• Prohibiting any staff member to work if there is a possibility that they are sick or if they have knowingly been directly exposed to the virus.

•  Sanitizing our trucks, equipment, and tools daily.

• Sanitizing the work area at the beginning and end of each workday.

• Providing signage throughout the work area to reinforce safe practices and good personal hygiene.

• Providing one on one showroom appointments with PPE provided to visitors if needed.

• Sanitizing our showroom.

• Availability of home/office appointments to view samples, etc.

We are optimistic that the situation in New York will continue to improve. We will be diligent in acquiring the most up to date knowledge from reliable sources to inform, and if necessary, adjust our safe practices. We look forward to emerging a stronger organization—one which embraces innovation and social responsibility among its guiding principles. 

Tom Evans Joins Our New England Team

Historical Windows is excited to bring Tom Evans into the fold as our New England Territory Representative.

A New England native, Tom’s more than 30 years of experience bridges both the competitive New York and the greater New England markets. He possesses a broad product knowledge of windows, doors, and millwork, and the project management skills to see even the most challenging projects succeed.

Welcome, Tom!

Historical Windows of New York Joins New England Market

Historical Windows is bringing our legacy of 50 years of successful landmark projects, the best product partnerships in the industry, and innovation in high performance to another iconic and historical city: Boston.

 With the launch of our New England team, Historical Windows can now better serve Boston’s architecture and restoration industry with bespoke window and door solutions.

From the Greek Revivals of Beacon Hill to the high performance new builds of Metro West, Historical Windows is ready to take projects from concept to Landmark Commission approvals to installation.