My discussion with Tristan Schwartzman, P.E., concluded with him reciting the words on a plaque found on the wall of Charles Copeland, the founder of Goldman Copeland, an engineering consultancy in New York City. They’re the title of this profile, and they certainly left me thinking.

Maintenance is certainly a key aspect in life, as it keeps buildings, equipment, outdoor areas and even relationships from crumbling into destruction. But I believe this engineering perspective also suggests that just preserving the status quo isn’t enough; work must be done to improve and help things evolve to a better status.

Local Law 97

Our initial topic of discussion was New York City’s Local Law 97, which was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings more than 25,000 square feet in size. He quickly put into context a statistic often associated with the city: more than two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions come from its buildings.

“New York City is a huge consumer of energy, but the per capita consumption of individuals living in New York City is not high,” he explains. “People who live in New York City don’t drive cars, they’re commuting on subways. A lot of the standard energy uses that you think of across the United States really aren’t factors here—not to the same degree. Where people live is the primary consumer of energy.”

Local Law 97 is basically a carbon cap. Each building, depending upon its size and occupancy, is allocated a certain number of tons of carbon. If they use any more than that, there’s a financial penalty: a fine. According to Schwartzman, the goal is to replace “general good ideas” about optimizing buildings with a decisive final number to get people to jump on board to meet those requirements.

Mostly Baby Steps

Schwartzman notes that most of the city’s new construction is well governed by codes and standards. Transferring heat efficiently within a secure building envelope is a common part of any new, well-financed building in New York City. But most of the city buildings were built well in the past, many pre-World War II and before the time of sustainable construction thinking. For those buildings, major overhauls such as complete recladding are extremely cost-prohibitive for owners, so they look for simpler, yet effective solutions.

He describes a recent project as a common example: “A lot of standard multifamily high-rise buildings will have a fan on the roof that distributes air down through all of the hallways to keep those hallways pressurized. It provides a little bit of ventilation and also prevents stack effect,” he notes. “It’s a relatively small portion of the building’s total heating—maybe 15, 20 percent—and it’s typically cooled via a standard air-conditioning unit and heated via gas furnace.”

“We’re trying to replace that unit and tie it into the exhaust systems coming up from the rest of the building, so we can get a little bit of heat recovery and run it through a heat pump instead of gas, so the heat is electrified,” he continues. “You don’t have to electrify the heat of the entire building, which could be cost prohibitive, but you can electrify this one little chunk of this multifamily building, and you’re taking strides toward Local Law 97 without putting yourself in a bad spot.”

He further explains that the roof units typically have a lifespan of 20 years, so they need to be replaced anyway. “If you replace it with this heat pump instead of the standard unit, the incremental cost difference isn’t that much, and the electrification benefit is pretty strong.”

Heating System Optimization

Although much of current talk in large building design is about full electrification, there are not enough capital reserves out there to electrify every building in New York City in the next few years.

“There’s a lot of opportunity left in optimizing heating systems,” Schwartzman believes. “That’s technically challenging, because a steam distribution loop from 1915 has a lot of band-aids associated with it, but I think it’s the right path. If you want to get into 2030 compliance, that’s a pathway for most buildings where you’re not going to bankrupt your clients.”