Forest Hills Co-op Celebrated As Part Of Green Building Campaign

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Standing in front of a solar panel and LED light-studded Forest Hills co-op Friday, local leaders announced a campaign promoting green buildings in NYC as part of the city's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Dubbed "Building Action NYC," the campaign chiefly aims to raise awareness about "NYC Accelerator," a free resource that helps building owners implement energy efficiency upgrades — including those made at the Fairview Co-op in Forest Hills.

This resource, leaders said Friday, is essential in helping the city meet its aggressive climate goals, since energy consumption from buildings (including electricity use, heating, and cooling) contributes about 70 percent of the city's total carbon emissions.

"If we get buildings right we get the entire process right," said Mayor Eric Adams, noting that the accelerator has helped about 9,000 owners convert buildings from fossil fuels to renewable and electric-based energy sources.

With the help of the accelerator, the Fairview, for example, added the cost of energy upgrades to their property tax bills, instead of paying upfront; a first-of-its-kind payment plan that building president Greg Carlson says has helped cut costs overall.

"We put solar panels on the roof, and that helped reduce our monthly fuel bills completely in half," said Carlson, adding that the Fairview's environmental efforts have been ongoing for a decade. "We all are here to do our part for the environment. It's thinking ahead and thinking about the future and not just thinking about the now."

These upgrades aren't only environmentally and financially beneficial, they could soon be legally required, leaders pointed out Friday.

In 2019, the City Council passed Local Law 97, requiring most buildings of a certain size to meet energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emission limits by 2024 — a cornerstone of the city's Climate Mobilization Act.

While some advocates and elected officials have expressed concern that the mayor isn't sufficiently funding this effort, the Adams administration has repeatedly voiced confidence in meeting the city's climate goals on time.

"This administration is committed to an aggressive decarbonization effort," said Kizzy Charles-Guzman, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, Friday, pointing to the success of the Fairview.

"Buildings like the Fairview know all too well that the risks that our city faces from climate change are not in the distant future, they are impacting our communities here and now today," she added.

Charles-Guzman was one of many leaders who spoke about the disproportionate impact of climate change on neighborhoods in Queens; chiefly low-income communities of color, but also areas like Forest Hills, where the deadly flooding from Hurricane Ida damaged buildings and killed one person living at the Fairview.

"The last time I was here... I was here in sorrow. Today is a day of celebration," said Council Member Lynn Schulman, alluding to gathering at the co-op after the hurricane.

"The Building Action NYC campaign will help make New York City a leader in adapting to meet the realities of climate change and address the needs of our broken infrastructure," she said.

In addition to spreading awareness of the NYC Accelerator, the campaign will educate New Yorkers on the benefits of building decarbonization and how it supports environmental justice, since the impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by low-income communities of color.

"In particular we are committed to supporting buildings and doing outreach in environmental justice neighborhoods, places where every ounce of carbon, soot, and fossil fuel pollution that we remove from the air really matters," said Charles-Guzman.

"It’s about cleaning the air that we breathe, making our city more livable, reducing pollutants in our neighborhoods, creating green jobs for New Yorkers, and making the spaces where we live, work, and play healthier and more resilient."