An audit released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found that while the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) made efforts to ensure compliance by private building owners with the city’s Climate Mobilization Act (CMA), its hands-off approach to monitoring its service providers’ outreach efforts and building owner compliance with certain requirements provided no assurance that owners would be in compliance with requirements to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the mandated deadlines. The audit covered the period from November 2019 to June 2025.
“New York state and the City of New York are leaders in combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” DiNapoli said. “Despite these efforts, my audit found the oversight and monitoring by the New York City Department of Buildings to track compliance with the city’s Climate Mobilization Act needed significant improvement to ensure that its important policy goals are achieved. I’m pleased that, under the new administration, the agency agreed with most of our recommendations and has reported already moving forward with implementing them.”
New York City enacted the CMA in 2019 to reduce GHG emissions by establishing building emissions limits and reducing emissions from the city’s largest buildings by 40% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. DOB is required to establish and engage in outreach and education efforts to inform private building owners of CMA requirements, and relies in part on third party service providers to ensure compliance with the Act.
The New York City Department of Finance compiles a Covered Building List identifying the buildings required to comply with the Act. As of April 2024, the list contained 27,976 buildings, which are placed by DOB into one of six compliance pathways. The audit examined buildings in the first compliance pathway, which contained 13,269 buildings and required owners to submit their 2024 GHG emissions report by May 1, 2025, and each year thereafter.
DiNapoli’s audit found that DOB reported sending outreach letters to 602 private building owners, but only 150 of these (25%) were listed on the Covered Building List, providing no assurance that all covered building owners were made aware of the Act’s requirements. Also, DOB’s phone call log revealed that only 8% of the buildings covered by the first compliance period had been contacted. DOB officials cited staffing limitations.
Covered building owners must annually measure their energy consumption by inputting their energy and water usage data into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager online benchmarking tool, which calculates a building’s annual GHG emissions.
Auditors reviewed data for a random sample of 151 covered buildings and found that 13 of the 151 (9%) were above the carbon emissions limits for the first reporting period, which could result in penalties of nearly $2 million absent remedial action. There was no documentation that DOB contacted the owners of five of these 13 buildings to advise them on how to reduce their carbon emissions. DOB officials said they rely on their contracted service provider and the Help Center for most outreach efforts, but did not provide evidence that it took steps to ensure these efforts were effective.
Auditors examined DOB’s phone logs and determined that 631 building owners were referred to the service provider. From a sample of 53 of these owners, 43% were still at risk of not meeting the requirements, with an estimated potential penalty of $2.4 million. DOB officials indicated that they do not follow up on referrals made to their service provider.
DOB’s service provider maintains a website that includes a sustainability map, allowing users to search for any building address within New York City to access information about its energy usage, verify compliance status, and review penalty projections. Building owners that may be fined in 2025 for not meeting 2024 requirements are highlighted in red on the website.
Auditors selected a sample of 46 buildings with projected penalties of $13,392,900 and found that 23 (50%) were not contacted by DOB according to its phone log. For the 23 buildings DOB did contact, only 12 were referred to the service provider for further assistance. DOB did not follow up on all buildings at risk of non-compliance, and did not ensure the owners were made aware of the requirements and available resources.
DOB officials questioned the reliability of the data found on their service provider’s website, but did not explain why they allowed the posting of unreliable data by the vendor they rely on for outreach, reflecting another indication of inadequate monitoring.
The law also requires covered buildings to post DOB-issued energy efficiency labels in publicly visible areas. Auditors found that 13 (24%) out of a sample of 55 buildings did not have the required labels posted. Of the 42 buildings that had labels posted, 31% were not displayed in a conspicuous area visible to the public.
DiNapoli’s audit included several recommendations, including that DOB:
- Contact building owners, especially those in jeopardy of not meeting the CMA’s GHG emissions requirements, document this contact and inform them of the requirements and available resources such as education and referrals for financing.
- Create a system to track DOB referrals to the service provider and use it to maintain information about services and assistance provided to the building owners, and follow up on buildings that are in jeopardy of not meeting GHG emissions requirements.
- Inform building owners of the CMA’s requirements for posting the energy efficiency labels, and inspect buildings to verify that they are posted as required.
DOB generally agreed with the audit recommendations, but indicated that the timing of the audit overlapped with their build-out of outreach and implementation efforts, and that their engagement rate with covered properties has significantly improved.
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