May 1, 2025, was a significant date for many NYC building owners as it marked the first annual compliance report filing deadline for Local Law 97 (LL97). Enacted in 2019 as part of the larger NYC Climate Mobilization Act (CMA), LL97 requires covered buildings to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and demonstrate compliance with the law’s increasingly stringent caps towards the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Nadia Elrokhsy, an Associate Professor of Ecological Design and a Vice President and board member of a six-building residential complex built in the 1960s—which is also one of NYC’s few Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs)—is applying her expertise in sustainability and environmental design to help facilitate a strategic decarbonization retrofit plan for the development. Recognizing that a clean energy infrastructure is a crucial element of New York State’s Climate Act, the goal is to transition to a green grid by 2040, accompanied by a push to electrify all things powered by fossil fuels. “An electricity grid powered by ‘100% zero-emissions resources by 2040‘ is ambitious and admirable,” notes Professor Elrokhsy. “It will require a significant increase in alternative energy generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure, impacting other ecosystems–human and non-human–beyond our hyper-local urban ecosystem.

Achieving New York’s clean energy infrastructure goals faces challenges to sustained progress. Still, this approach to decarbonization is relatively straightforward. “The ever-expanding set of legislation and the associated penalties for non-compliance without serious incentives to study and implement reductions more broadly is a missed opportunity for resiliency and regenerative practices. The City would benefit from partnering with building owners and homeowners to explore incremental and diverse approaches to meeting its climate commitments. A comprehensive approach to decarbonization must consider multiple factors, including significant cuts in resource consumption and comprehensive full-lifecycle impacts assessment, including an embodied carbon analysis for procuring new compared to renew or extend the life of things more efficiently.” Increasingly, professionals like Nadia Elrokhsy are advocating for New York City to acknowledge and prioritize incremental, multi-faceted, and long-term approaches to decarbonization. Professor Elrokhsy believes this perspective is essential if the City is to fulfill its climate commitments, which, as she says, “is at the heart of a more equitable and holistic view of decarbonizing the existing built environment, requiring integrative thinking and practices.”

With the urgency to act, building owners, boards, and managers are studying the potential fines for their buildings for exceeding the City’s 2025 or 2030 emissions caps. They are eager to understand their options and how to fund them. “Our projected fines do not begin until 2030. Since 2021, we have engaged multiple consultants to explore options, generate reports, and communicate the results to the larger community of homeowners,” explains Professor Elrokhsy. “I have insisted on developing multiple pathways to compliance with our consultants, from strategies based on the current push for new fully electrified systems to less-incentivized base and deep retrofits that focus on reducing consumption first and foremost. This approach enables us to also prioritize the homeowners’ quality of life, comfort, and resilience amid climate extremes.”

To leverage the experiences of building owners and professionals who are making progress, various governmental and non-governmental organizations are developing LL97 compliance technical training sessions. Professor Elrokhsy’s expertise is gaining recognition; in the past three months, she has participated in a focus group and follow-up hosted by the Urban Land Institute on behalf of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, spoken at a Town Hall organized by the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums (CNYC) and taken part in a small group interview with key stakeholders hosted by Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex) in collaboration with the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and CNYC. “My work is focused on demand-side mitigation strategies, resiliency, and regenerative systems. I am delighted and honored to share my knowledge and experiences in this way. We all need to support each other as best we can. We share this one planet.”