draft plan

, Civics Analytics and Urban Intelligence, Section 001 – Draft Plan

Building Electrification Feasibility Program – Draft Plan

Section 1: Executive Summary

 Brief overview of New York City’s push for climate change action and how beneficial

electrification can help NYC achieve carbon emissions reductions

 Brief overview of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability’s (MOCS) role in

advancing carbon emissions reductions

 Outline of my proposal to advance beneficial electrification in NYC through the

utilization of current data and ways in which MOCS can better collect and use future data

Section 2: Background - Need for Beneficial Electrification to Advance New York City’s 80 x 50

Emissions Reduction Goals

 Outline the current legislation and city planning that seeks to reduce building carbon

emissions via energy-efficiency.

o Briefly discuss 80x50 and how legislation such as Local Law 87 (LL87) and

Local Law 97 (LL97) fit into the framework

 Discuss how beneficial electrification is a key part of 80x50 and how expansion of

electrification in city buildings should be in tandem with grid decarbonization

 Reference articles and reports from the Urban Green Council and StopWaste surrounding

the need for electrification feasibility studies to understand building electrification

barriers via need for electrical infrastructure upgrades

 Discussion of the need for an expansion of these electrification feasibility studies to

provide building owners and property managers with information about their buildings’

potential for electrification or other energy-efficiency upgrades

 There is no current legislation surround these studies and electrical infrastructure

information is not publicly available or being collected en masse

Section 3: The Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability – Overview and Challenges

 Provide background on how MOCS is divided into teams and the collaborative effort

between the teams to achieve initiatives

o How the office prioritizes the hiring of a diverse cohort of policy advisors to draft

and lead legislation surrounding climate change, sustainability, and environmental

justice

o Discuss how the office coordinates with the Mayor’s Office of Management and

Budget (OMB) to receive requisite funding for legislative initiatives

o Discuss how the office coordinates with the Department of Information

Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT), the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO),

and the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) to advance data in the office

o Discuss additional challenges such as office turnover and the dissolution of teams

as time goes on rather than having a cemented organizational chart

 Brief discussion of how the office uses data and how data utilization could be improved

to better advance legislative initiatives related to building carbon emissions and

environmental justice

Matthew Coughlin, Civics Analytics and Urban Intelligence, Section 001 – Draft Plan

o Focus more on analyzing and leveraging the data for more effective use of

resources (incentive and financing programs)

Section 4: Advancing Beneficial Electrification in New York City through Data

 Transition to discuss how beneficial electrification requires more direct city government

efforts and how MOCS can lead the charge for expanding electrification feasibility

studies, and therefore beneficial electrification in NYC

 Outline of my proposal:

o Use LL87 data, which has already been collected through MOCS coordination

with the Department of Buildings’ Office of Building Energy and Emissions

Performance (OBEEP), to identify pockets of buildings with high carbon

emissions and high fossil fuel usage

o Overlay the pockets, or hot spots, with MOCS previously identified

environmental justice areas, and find neighborhoods or clusters of buildings that

fit both criteria

o Conduct targeted electrification feasibility studies on the batch of buildings and

coordinate with public organizations to perform electrification upgrades on the

buildings in question

 Further discussion of partnerships and transition to future opportunities

Section 5: Conclusion and Future Opportunities within the Mayor’s Office of Climate and

Sustainability

 Discussion of the development of a larger scale building electrification feasibility study

program designed by MOCS in coordination with OBEEP and other city agencies

 Discussion of possibility for a Department of Sustainability within the city government to

provide MOCS and the Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency more funding and

operational capacity

 Final conclusion and acknowledgments

References:

 Articles, reports cited

 Interviews cited