Oculus, NYC
The time is ripe for innovation and thinking Greener! And that is exactly what NYC is doing. The city has some of the most ambitious building performance policies and regulations in the United States. These policies are reshaping our built environment while offering many new green jobs and opportunities for companies to prosper and become part of the clean green transition eliminating the need to burn fossil fuels.
Come 2024, all NYC buildings over 25Ksqft. will be required to meet greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits or face financial penalties which are proven to be effective in forcing the adoption of new concepts and preventing opposition.
In 2025, NYC will become one of the first cities in the world to adopt predicted energy use code, as part of Local Law 32 (LL32) that was created in 2018. LL32 is a law that broadens and deepens sustainability for municipal projects and will require all building 25Ksqft. or greater to submit an energy model to the NYC Building Department. The energy model measures a building designed performance and may not always be its true representation. This has been, and still is, a challenge for architects and engineers to overcome many variables within the constructability review process, lack of proper building commissioning, building operation, and predicted occupancy patterns.
So, you may ask: what can we do? We can adopt practices that close the gap between the energy models submitted and the actual building energy performance. Some of the practices include an integrated design approach when allowable, conduct site observations during key milestones, utilize energy modeling in the construction process to track all design changes, conduct evaluations after building opens and is operational, and trying to incorporate a green lease when possible (owner encourages tenants to limit energy usage).
In today’s warming world, now more than ever, we are rethinking ways to construct buildings and occupy them while having less of an environmental impact. It’s important to have stricter processes when conducting verification and accountability during all stages of the design and construction of a building. The industry needs to raise the bar on delivering projects that perform below the GHG emissions limit. These new ways are helping to slash the 40% of total global GHG emissions attributed to buildings!