NYC Local Law 97: Emissions Limits, Penalties and Deadlines

Local Law 97 is New York City’s cap on the carbon emissions of its largest buildings. It does not tell owners what to install. It sets a yearly limit in tonnes of CO₂e for each building and fines every tonne above it. The first limits applied to calendar year 2024, reported in 2025. DOB found that most buildings that filed met them; the 2030 limits are where most of the work lies.

This page sets out who is covered, how the limit and the emissions are worked out, what a building pays, and what lowers the bill, with the section of the code or rule for each. To run the numbers for a building, use the NYC Local Law 97 calculator, which finds any covered building by address and fills in its benchmarking data.

1. Who is covered

A covered building is, as it appears in Department of Finance records (Admin Code §28-320.1):

• a building over 25,000 gross sq ft; or
• two or more buildings on the same tax lot that together exceed 50,000 gross sq ft; or
• two or more buildings held as condominiums under the same board of managers that together exceed 50,000 gross sq ft.

Article 320 excludes power and steam plants, low-rise rows of individually owned homes with no shared system serving over 25,000 sq ft, city buildings, and NYC Housing Authority property. It also excludes four groups that Article 321 covers instead: buildings where more than 35% of units are rent regulated, houses of worship, housing development fund company (HDFC) property and buildings in a project-based federal housing program.

DOB publishes a Covered Buildings List each year. It is the starting point, not the last word: DOB’s FAQ has a process to dispute a listing, or to add a building that should be on the list and is not.

2. The four compliance paths

The Covered Buildings List marks which path DOB has on file for each lot. A building moves between paths when its status changes: an Article 321 building whose rent-regulated share falls to 35% or less starts annual Article 320 reports from the next full calendar year (DOB Article 320 Information Guide, section II).

3. How the limit is worked out

The limit is the floor area of each use, by its ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager property type, times that type’s limit per square foot, added up (1 RCNY 103-14(d)(2)). A building with 24,000 sq ft of apartments and 6,000 sq ft of shops gets the apartment rate on the first and the retail rate on the second.

The rule lists 60 property types for each period (1 RCNY 103-14(c)(3)). For 2024–2029 a multifamily building’s limit is 6.75 kg CO₂e per sq ft and an office’s is 7.58 kg. From 2030 they fall to 3.347 kg and 2.691 kg: 50% and 64% lower. For the 2024–2029 period only, an owner may instead use the occupancy-group limits in the code (§28-320.3.1, rule (c)(3)(ii)).

Every type, every period, in kg CO₂e per sq ft a year:

4. How emissions are worked out

A building’s emissions are each energy source used in the calendar year times its greenhouse gas coefficient, added up. Electricity is counted per kWh; gas, oil and steam per kBtu. The coefficients for 2024–2029 are in the code (§28-320.3.1.1); those for 2030–2034 are in the rule (1 RCNY 103-14(d)(3)).

Only electricity’s coefficient falls in 2030, from 0.000288962 to 0.000145 tCO₂e per kWh, as the grid gets cleaner. Gas and oil stay the same and steam falls slightly. So a building that burns gas or oil for heat gains little from the 2030 change, while its limit drops by half or more. The city has not yet set coefficients for 2035 on.

5. Penalties

$268 is the most the law allows, not a fixed charge. In setting it, a court or tribunal weighs the owner’s good-faith efforts, compliance history, any adjustment conditions, events outside the owner’s control, financial hardship, and whether the penalty would affect facilities critical to life or safety (§28-320.6.1). Penalties are recovered before the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings or in court (§28-320.6.4).

6. What lowers emissions or raises the limit

Deductions from reported emissions

• Renewable energy credits. RECs from renewable energy made in, or delivered into, New York City can be deducted, but only from the emissions of grid electricity, never from gas, oil or steam (1 RCNY 103-14(e)(1)).
• Offsets. For 2024–2029 only, offsets can cover up to 10% of the building’s limit (§28-320.3.6.2). The rule’s eligible source is the city’s Affordable Housing Reinvestment Fund, which sets the price (1 RCNY 103-14(e)(3)).
• Beneficial electrification. For 2024–2029 reports, the electricity used by heat pumps is counted at a negative coefficient: −0.0013 tCO₂e per kWh for equipment in service before 2027, −0.00065 for 2027 to 2029 (1 RCNY 103-14(d)(3)(vii)). From 2030 it counts like other grid electricity.
• Clean distributed energy. For 2024–2029, electricity exported from on-site solar and the rated capacity of on-site storage can be deducted (§28-320.3.6.3; 1 RCNY 103-14(e)(2)).

Adjustments to the limit

• Capital or financial constraints (§28-320.7). Where a landmark designation, another law or a physical condition makes the work impossible, or where its cost would stop the owner earning a reasonable return or the building is in financial hardship, and other conditions are met.
• Buildings far over in 2018 (§28-320.8). A building whose 2018 emissions were more than 40% over its 2024 limit, because of special uses such as 24-hour operation, could apply for a limit of 70% of its 2018 emissions for 2024–2029, with a plan to meet the 2030 limit. Applications closed on 1 January 2025.
• Not-for-profit hospitals (§28-320.9). Limits of 85% of 2018 emissions for 2024–2029 and 70% for 2030–2034, on application by 1 January 2025.

7. Reporting and deadlines

Each year by 1 May, the owner files a report for the calendar year before, certified by a registered design professional, stating whether the building met its limit and, if not, by how much (§28-320.3.7). A building that was over one year and under the next must say how it got there. An owner who cannot file in time despite good-faith efforts can apply for an extension; it does not change that year’s limit (§28-320.3.7.1).

For the reports due in 2026, DOB’s service notice of 27 February 2026 set 1 May to 30 June 2026 for filing, and 30 June as the last day to ask for an extension to 29 August 2026 (1 RCNY 103-14(g)(2)). The next reports, for calendar year 2026, are due by 1 May 2027. That is also the first report for buildings on the 2026 path.

8. Year one: what the 2024 reports showed

DOB’s first compliance report (§28-320.3.7.2) covers calendar year 2024. Of the 19,963 properties required to report (29,031 buildings), about 95% filed. Among Article 320 properties that filed with emissions data, 95% met their 2024 limits. Article 321 audits were still under way.

Our own estimate, from the Covered Buildings List and owners’ 2024 benchmarking data, shows the step that 2030 brings:

GreenCalculus estimate from the Covered Buildings List and the owners’ 2024 benchmarking reports, before deductions, adjustments and penalty mitigation. Left out: properties with floor area of a type LL97 does not list, no grid electricity, or energy use too high to be real (2,637).

9. Article 321: the one-time test

Article 321 buildings had to show, in a report due by 1 May 2025, one of two things (§28-321.2):

1. Emissions route. Their calendar-2024 emissions, worked out as if they were Article 320 buildings, did not exceed the limit the building would have from 2030 (§28-321.2.1; 1 RCNY 103-17(c)(1)). The report is certified by a registered design professional.
2. Prescriptive route. Thirteen energy conservation measures, where applicable, were done by 31 December 2024: heating and hot-water set points, heating leaks repaired, heating system maintained, radiator temperature controls, pipe insulation, condensate or water tank insulation, boiler sensors and controls, steam traps, steam system master venting, lighting to the energy code, weatherising and air sealing, exhaust fan timers, and radiant barriers behind radiators (§28-321.2.2). A retro-commissioning agent certifies the report (§28-321.3.2).

Meeting neither carries a penalty of $10,000 per covered building (1 RCNY 103-17(e)). The rule allows a mitigated penalty, possibly zero, where a disaster made compliance impossible, or where the owner showed by 1 May 2025 a government commitment to fund an energy project that will meet either route (103-17(f)).

10. Common misreadings

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• NYC Administrative Code, Title 28, chapter 3 (2022 Construction Codes): Article 320 (§§28-320.1 to 28-320.11) and Article 321 (§§28-321.1 to 28-321.3).
• NYC Department of Buildings, 1 RCNY §103-14, Requirements for Reporting Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Covered Buildings.
• NYC Department of Buildings, 1 RCNY §103-17, Article 321 reports and penalties.
• NYC Department of Buildings, Article 320 Information Guide, version 1.4 (30 June 2025).
• NYC Department of Buildings, Local Law 97: 2024 Compliance and Reporting Rates, report under §28-320.3.7.2.
• NYC Department of Buildings, service notice Deadlines for Sustainability Laws in 2026, 27 February 2026.
• NYC Department of Buildings, LL97 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions and the Covered Buildings List FAQ (checked 29 October 2026).

Related: NYC Local Law 97 calculator · ASHRAE 90.1 · EPA eGRID · CRREM · GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance · Scope 1 · Scope 2.

What changed in this revision

Version 1.0 (29 October 2026): First publication.