On September 26, 2024, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of the GreenHOUSE Fund to improve compliance with Local Law 97 for owners of buildings with affordable housing. Since 2019, Local Law 97 has required the majority of buildings over 25,000 square feet to meet new energy-efficient and greenhouse gas emissions requirements. The City’s ongoing climate goals include having the largest buildings produce zero emissions by 2050 and improving air quality.
Local Law 97 permits owners of buildings that do not comply with the law’s requirement to upgrade their buildings to meet the sustainability goals to purchase offset certificates to avoid incurring penalties. Property owners will have the opportunity to purchase the offset certificates in advance of the compliance reporting deadline in May 2025. The offset certificates will cost $268 per ton of carbon emissions. The cost of the certificates mirror the penalty the property owner would have incurred if they did not meet the carbon emission limit.
The GreenHOUSE Fund will be funded by the sale of the offset certificates. The GreenHOUSE Fund will be utilized for the decarbonization and electrification of affordable housing developments. Additionally, the fund will assist the Resilient & Equitable Decarbonization Initiative, a New York State Housing Preservation & Development and Energy Research and Development Authority initiative, that aims to reduce affordable housing buildings carbon emissions.
The “NYC Accelerator” provides property owners guidance on how to comply with the Local Law 97 regulations. The Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) details available financing programs to property owners to ensure they can afford the upgrades necessary to adhere to the law, and individual’s the building owners can hire to complete the upgrades.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, “Our buildings produce 70 percent of New York City’s emissions, which is why we’re laser-focused on helping buildings electrify, decarbonize, and move forward into the future. But we can’t leave anyone behind — particularly our affordable housing developments, which often are located in disadvantaged neighborhoods with high asthma rates. That’s why we’re launching our new GreenHOUSE Fund, to make it more affordable to go green and save green. We’re making sure that we don’t leave anyone behind as we build a greener, cleaner city for working-class New Yorkers.”
Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said, “Responding to the climate crisis requires all of us; participation must be within everyone’s financial reach. With the GreenHOUSE program, we are making real inroads on the affordability challenge of emissions reduction mandates — not with federal underwriting or an expensive, taxpayer-funded program, but simply by helping one another, an idea as clever as it is simple. The true renewable resources in New York are our collaboration and innovation, and I look forward to this scaling to make New York City the greenest big city in America.”
By: Chelsea Ramjeawan (Chelsea is the CityLaw intern and a New York Law School student, Class of 2025.)