Keeping your Building’s Energy Costs Low & Avoiding Penalties

An important part of your building’s maintenance and upkeep is ensuring its energy efficiency.

Now in New York, that’s not just good practice but required by law.

Under the Climate Mobilization Act passed in 2019, Local Law 97 requires most buildings larger than 25,000 square feet to meet caps on their greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2024 — with increasingly tight limits in 2030 and every 5 years through 2050 — or else face hefty fines.  

Fines you say? How much are we talking about?

When a building fails to meet the required emission reduction goals, they must pay annual fines of $268 per metric ton of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions your building exceeds the city limit.

For example:

• Let’s say your building has calculated emissions of 2,210  tCO2e
• The allowable building emissions calculated by the building square footage and the published building emissions intensity limit are 2,000 tCO2e
• That difference of just 210 metric tons will cost you 210 * 268 = $56,280 annually (Yikes!)
  Additionally, there are fines for not submitting a report (.50 per building square foot, per month). 

Now if you have a 200,000 square foot building, the fines will add up to $100,000 per month (.50 cents per sq foot per month) (Double Yikes!)

The Solution – HLZAE

Luckily HLZAE houses a multitude of services that can help building owners diagnose any energy inefficiencies as well as create and execute a plan that accommodates owners timelines and budget. We can even assist owners in accessing incentives and rebates to assist them in reaching their efficiency goals.

This process all starts with an Energy Audit.

Our skilled energy professionals do an in-depth energy analysis of buildings systems, identifying all applicable conservation measures. Once identified, we propose various ways to reduce your building’s energy usage as well as perform all necessary calculations to breakdown for you the energy savings associated with each conservation measure, including a life cycle cost analysis!

These could include the following:

• Window Replacement & Window Masterplans
• Façade Upgrades
• Heating Plant Upgrades
• Chiller Upgrades & Conversions
• Cooling Tower Upgrades
• Electrical Upgrades
• Oil to Gas Conversions

Who knew that being green also saves some green?!

We also assist with navigating the confusing landscape of energy rebates and tax incentives to find the right ones for your building. Our ultimate objective is to find a solution that optimizes our clients’ return on investment.

Because the goal isn’t just to avoid penalties, having an energy efficient building saves clients mountains of money in the long run and ultimately makes your building a more comfortable place to live.

A winning result for the environment and building owners!

HLZAE can undertake this analysis and prepare the necessary Energy Audit report in compliance with NYC LL 97 requirements and file the report with the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) prior to the deadline for your building. During the energy audit, our energy professionals with the necessary energy auditing and retro commissioning credentials recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings program, detail the building’s energy usage while identifying the systems responsible for the usage such as lighting, heating, air conditioning, etc.

Once identified, we propose ways to reduce the building’s energy usage as well as perform all the necessary calculations to delineate the energy savings associated with each energy conservation measures including a life cycle cost analysis. HLZAE will then review all available City, State and/or Federal programs/incentives that may be available to assist in financing each of the energy conservation upgrades that have been identified and file all necessary reports with the DOB.