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The City Capital Green Building Program is an effort by the City of New York to ensure most capital projects it owns, or funds, are designed and constructed to efficiently achieve greater environmental performance. This effort was first undertaken in 2005 with the passing of Local Law 86 and has been expanded upon through the enactment of Local Laws 31 and 32 of 2016 and Local Law 51 of 2023. These laws, codified within the New York City Charter, Chapter 9, Capital Projects and Budget, Section 224.1: Green Building Standards, require more stringent green building design standards for City-owned and City-funded capital projects and requires them to consume significantly less energy than similar existing building types. This effort is in support of PlaNYC’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality and position New York City to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies as well as local and regional resilience.
The Director of the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination (MOEC), as established by Executive Order 97 of 2006, has the authority to exercise the powers and duties of the Mayor in conjunction with the implementation of Charter Section 224.1. Further, as established by Executive Order 149 of 2011, the Director's responsibilities include periodically evaluating the stringency of the law's minimum requirements and, if warranted by developments and advancements within the green building industry, to change them as well as to expand the category of projects subject to the law.
Legislation
In 2023, the New York City Council adopted Local Law 51, amending Local Laws 31 and 32 (LL31, LL32), which had been adopted in 2016 to amend Local Law 86 of 2005 (LL86), one of the nation's first green building laws. Local Law 51 applies to all capital projects that substantially completed design phase on or after April 16, 2023. The applicability of Local Law 51 to capital projects is largely dependent on estimated construction cost, building occupancy group and project scope.
Local Law 51 requires that City-owned and City-funded, non-City-owned new construction, addition, substantial reconstruction, and HVAC upgrade projects meet specific design and energy use standards. Covered occupancy groups include A-Assembly, B-Business, E-Educational, F-Factory and Industrial, H-High Hazard, I-Institutional, M-Mercantile, R-Residential, and S-Storage.^
Regarding design, most covered projects must be built to standards as organized by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The law requires applicable City-owned projects to reduce energy use intensity by 50 percent from the baseline performance of buildings of a similar type. The law also requires that larger plumbing installations and replacements be designed to reduce the use of potable water. Specific occupancy groups (E-Educational, F-Factory and Industrial, H-High Hazard, R-Residential^) have different designated standards, and some (groups Assembly A5 and U-Utility and Miscellaneous^) are exempt from all the cited provisions.
^Source: NYC Building Code 2022, Chapter 3 Use and Occupancy Classification