NYC's Local Law 97 Carbon Emission Reporting Portal Opens

The online portal for filing Local Law 97 carbon emission reports is now open. Co-op and condo boards must now navigate a multi-step process to report ahead of the May 1 deadline. After months of beta-testing, a series of educational webinars will help walk users through the submission process. A key takeaway from the first of these sessions is that filing is a multi-day process. “You cannot complete a report in one day and you need to plan for that,” says Emily Hoffman, director of building energy & emissions performance at NYC Department of Buildings (DOB).

There are three distinct steps to filing your building’s carbon emission report. The first is to pay the Local Law 97 filing fee via DOB NOW, the agency’s self-service online portal. Filing fees can range from $210 for a simple report to $950 for a good faith effort report.

Next, you will need to share your building’s energy source data with the city through the Energy Star Portfolio Manager (ESPM). The final step is to access the NYC Building Energy Analysis Manager (BEAM) portal to make your submission. Each portal needs to be accessed in sequence and the BEAM site can only be unlocked once payment is made. BEAM receives data from DOB NOW and ESPM overnight, which is why there’s a delay before it appears in BEAM.

An important element of the filing process is having consistency in the email addresses provided within each online portal. Three emails can be used to set up your account in DOB NOW – the owner, the owner’s representative and the energy service provider. For a co-op or condo, this would be the contact emails for the board president or relevant board member, the property manager and an energy consultant, architect or engineer.

Although the reporting deadline is May 1, a grace period this year extends the filing deadline to June 30. Additionally, between now and June 30 you can file for a further extension request for $60, putting off the filing deadline until August 29. This is an important consideration because late fees are calculated at $.50 per square foot per month. This means buildings could be charged tens of thousands of dollars per month for failing to file on time. A recent attempt by representatives of over 300,000 co-op shareholders and condo owners to get late fees waived until the end of the year has so far proved unsuccessful.

Once you have access to the BEAM platform you can add other users and contact details. Some of the important information you’ll need in order to submit your report includes the 10-digit building block and lot number (BBL) and the building identification (BIN), which you can find at DOB NOW. You will also need your DOB NOW payment confirmation number. Proof of energy upgrades — known as attestations — are required and templates for this are now available online from DOB. Attestations need to be signed by the building owner and certified by a registered design professional or qualified retro-commissioning agent, depending on your filing route.

The BEAM platform is where you will be able to communicate with the program. There’s a range of so-called tickets to file information, seek an extension or penalty mitigation, demonstrate good faith efforts and apply for deductions, as well as submit your report. You may be seeking deductions based on solar generation, co-generation or beneficial electrification. A DOB worksheet is available with templates and calculations to support this part of the application. With beneficial electrification credits, a building is able to bank early adoption of heat pump technology against future penalties. “BEAM will be able to store this information for future years of reporting,” Hoffman says.

As you work through the online form, you will also have the option to buy carbon offset certificates. These offsets are priced at the same rate as penalties — $268 per ton of carbon emissions — but might allow a non-compliant building to stay within the law, even if it is exceeding its carbon emission limits.

Once a report is submitted, DOB staff will review the documentation within BEAM and provide feedback. There are three possible outcomes once you’ve filed a report: compliance; non-compliance and a penalty; or non-compliance and a mediated resolution requiring a good faith effort report. “Building owners will see potential penalty exposure once their reports are filed,” says DOB press secretary Andrew Rudansky. He adds that enforcement actions will not be taken until after the Aug. 29 reporting extension deadline.