The City’s Green New Deal seeks to make New York carbon neutral by the year 2050. A key part of this plan is Local Law 97, which requires owners of many buildings to cut energy use or face fines.

To further these efforts, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is launching the Carbon Neutrality Innovation Challenge – the agency’s first-ever competition for ideas to increase energy efficiency among buildings, which are the City’s #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions.  Building upon strong incentives and the will already prevalent within the development community to make our city more sustainable, this competition is meant to push beyond the slate of tools currently available. 

As DOB works with the tech industry to execute the practical steps available now to reduce energy use and meet the upcoming goals of the Green New Deal, it is important that we keeping pushing for a grander vision for WHAT MIGHT BE and spark more discussion on how we can revolutionize the energy efficiency space in the decades to come.

We are looking for your ideas on topics that include, but are not limited, to:
  - Energy storage
  - Distributed generation
  - Building systems, management, and operations
  - Building materials and insulation
  - Reducing “embodied carbon” that is stored or emitted during construction

This competition will be led by DOB’s in-house Innovation Committee and the Department’s Building Sustainability Board, comprised of both public and private sector stakeholders, and chaired by the Department. DOB is partnering with the NYC Economic Development Corporation's Urban Tech Initiative and the UrbanTech Hub @ Company to help engage the clean-tech and advanced manufacturing sectors in the Carbon Neutrality Innovation Challenge.

When it comes to fighting climate change, we’re all in this together. Let’s hear your ideas for making our city more sustainable for future generations.

*Please read the competition rules here.