Decarbonization Tool Provides Free Energy Efficiency Guidance to Co-ops and Condos

For co-op and condo boards wanting support to reduce fossil fuel use in line with Local Law 97, the launch of a free tool can now help with decision making. Developed in partnership with Jaros, Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers (JB&B) and the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums (CNYC), the tool is designed as a simple spreadsheet. “It will tell you how your decarbonization plan will impact your finances, your carbon reduction and your penalty mitigation,” says Rebecca Poole, CNYC’s director of membership and communication. The spreadsheet has built-in information as well as fields to add specific details about your building.

The Excel-based tool doesn’t replace an energy audit or building evaluation by a professional engineer, but enables boards to plan their next steps with that information. “This tool works in combination with that information to help visualize and communicate the value of different projects,” says Molly Dee-Ramasamy, director of the carbon reduction group at JB&B, who helped develop the tool. So boards will need data from consulting engineers about the costs, incentives, and energy savings of proposed decarbonization projects for the tool to evaluate them and support decision making.

One of the unique features of the spreadsheet is how boards can toggle projects on and off. So if a building is considering a range of projects, the tool allows you to see how individual upgrades would impact LL97 compliance as a whole. “If you change the order of the projects or change the year you want to do the project it will change your output,” Poole says. The majority of apartment buildings are able to meet LL97 requirements for the first compliance period through 2029, but the tool has value for buildings as thresholds become more stringent beyond 2030.

The spreadsheet generates various graphs and data visualizations based on the information supplied. Poole believes this is a key element for boards. “That's what’s been missing — an ability for the decision makers to visualize what their different possibilities are,” she says. Representing the data in different ways allows boards to better communicate information at meetings to shareholders or unit owners.

Various notes and references are built into the spreadsheet to help boards source the information needed for each column. There are three tabs to explore, a “read me” tab providing user information, the calculator spreadsheet tab and finally a pre-filled example. Since the spreadsheet is free, it is accessible to anyone who is trying to figure out next steps towards fossil fuel reduction over the short and long term. “We wanted something that could be downloaded, kept and maintained over time,” Dee-Ramasamy says.

CNYC webinars will run at 6pm on March 13 and March 20 to guide people in how to use the tool. Registration is required. The tool will officially launch after the first training webinar. The hope is that it will provide clarity and understanding for board members before they commit to projects. “They can use this to bring order to all of the projects available in the marketplace and get a better sense of a pathway that works for them,” Poole says.