Nothing raises the blood pressure of building owners — and inspires them to hire help — quite like new laws with imminent filing deadlines and fines.
The city passed a bunch of them in the name of climate change. The big one is Local Law 97, but also on the books are Local Laws 84, 87, 95 and 133.
A cottage industry of consultants has unsurprisingly emerged to help property owners comply with this bewildering array of regulations, which each have their own deadlines, penalties, grace periods, exemptions and acronyms, notably the CBL — Covered Buildings List.
May 1 is the deadline for properties on the CBL to submit annual compliance reports for Local Law 97, the controversial emissions cap statute passed in 2019.
But a 60-day grace period pushes the actual deadline to June 30, and even then, owners can get a 30-day extension if a registered design professional or qualified retro-commissioning agent affirms being hired to complete the report.
The emissions cap is the city’s most sweeping and onerous environmental regulation facing property owners. It has survived persistent efforts by the real estate industry to make compliance easier, such as by allowing owners to offset their emissions by buying renewable energy credits.
Despite the extensions, the May 1 deadline has been circled on many calendars and is likely to get owners’ attention.
“May 2 is going to be the greatest day in my business’ life,” predicted Jimmy Carchietta, whose motto would probably be “from regs to riches” if EY hadn’t thought of it first.
Carchietta built a product called the Carbon Shield to help owners meet all the mandates. He also bought 89 domain names to steer potential customers his way.
Even with all the attention paid to Local Law 97, Carchietta said plenty of owners are utterly unprepared for it. “People call me, and I tell them, ‘You’re not making the deadline.’”
Whether or not they start on time, the strategy should be the same.
“The greatest investment for building owners is in energy efficiency,” he said. “I tell my clients all the time, we’re not showing up with magic beans. To reduce your emissions, you need to reduce your consumption.”
Two other environmental-footprint laws also demand information from building owners every May 1, but the deadline was extended to June 30 to match the Local Law 97 extension. Local Laws 84 and 133 require buildings over 25,000 square feet to benchmark their energy and water consumption annually, so they can be tracked and reduced.
Owners who seek the second extension for LL97 reports may do the same for LL84.
But wait, there’s more!
Local Law 87 mandates energy audits and retro-commissioning every 10 years for buildings over 50,000 square feet to identify energy-saving measures and ensure building systems are operating efficiently. If this is the year for your building, mark Dec. 31 on your calendar.
The poor stepchild to these measures is Local Law 95. It requires buildings to display an energy efficiency grade each October based on their benchmarking results. Grades must be posted like a scarlet letter, with the idea being to shame buildings into improving.
If it’s had any effect, it’s hard to tell. The Real Deal once called the original sponsor of the legislation and found he had forgotten all about it. But New Yorkers sometimes do notice the posted grades, the most common of which, when TRD last checked, was “D.”
The city uses the EnergyStar portfolio manager to calculate scores for its benchmarking laws: from 85 to 100 is an A, 70 to 85 is a B, 55 to 70 is a C, and below 55 is a D. Miss the deadline and you get an F.
Read more
“A tough sell”: Landlords pick fines over Local Law 97 compliance
The Daily Dirt: A break from Local Law 97
Critics say real estate got Cuomo to “circumvent” city’s climate law
