Building Sustainable Infrastructure
Each time we embark on a new design and construction project, we view it as an opportunity to build infrastructure that meets operational needs in balance with the City’s sustainability goals and objectives. During Earth Week, we’d like to share some highlights on our progress towards agency-wide decarbonization and climate resiliency targets achieved through our capital project delivery program.
Decarbonization
On capital projects, we have significant opportunities to contribute towards progress in reaching citywide energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets. Designers evaluate opportunities for on-site energy generation, equipment, systems, and operations that will reduce energy consumption, improve efficiency, and reduce GHG emissions. Meanwhile, solar photovoltaics are being standardized across multiple projects.
From the program’s inception through 2021, energy usage on design and construction projects has been reduced by 28 percent over baseline. Current projects are projected to reduce agency-wide energy consumption by approximately 60,106,505 kWh/yr, resulting in a savings of approximately $7 million annually in energy costs.
We are also transitioning towards cleaner energy sources to reduce emissions. Coupled with energy conservation measures, our design and construction projects are projected to reduce agency-wide emissions by approximately 34,244 metric tons of CO2e/yr. This equates to a total reduction of GHG emissions of 30 percent over baseline.
To support the agency’s more aggressive reduction targets of 40 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030, we are emphasizing less energy intensive alternatives over in-kind efficiency improvements, especially in business case (scope development) and preliminary design alternatives assessments.
Climate Resiliency
Our infrastructure is at increasing degrees of risk and in need of protection from the impacts of climate change, so every project is looked at for climate resiliency measures.
To date, we have invested approximately $165M in adaptation strategies to protect approximately $705 million of critical assets from climate change. Overall, this has resulted in a $0.23 of investment per dollar of protected asset. This high return on investment demonstrates the effectiveness of integrating climate resiliency into design.
We continue to collaborate with the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice to incorporate climate resiliency into City-wide and sewer shed master planning. With the passage of Local Law 41 of 2021, additional reporting tools for climate resiliency scoring are being incorporated into all projects moving forward, which will inform and guide the City in making the right investments to protect our infrastructure for New Yorkers of today and tomorrow.
Overall Performance
The Performance Summary table shows how the individual project decisions contribute to an overall significant change. Also shown is the participation in the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) and Envision rating systems which provide a framework for achieving triple-bottom line objectives.
