Ithaca to ‘green’ every single building in quest for carbon neutrality

Ithaca, New York, is set to be the first city in the country to electrify and decarbonise its entire building stock.

Following a common council vote, the contract was awarded to BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based climate tech startup focused on greening aging urban buildings.

City-wide electrification

According to BlocPower, it represents the first large-scale, city-wide electrification initiative in the US, and a major step forward in Ithaca’s plan to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

Building electrification is a major part of Ithaca’s Green New Deal, which the city claims is one of the “most aggressive” decarbonisation programmes in New York State. The programme will benefit Ithaca residents through job creation, lower energy costs, reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and more energy-efficient homes and buildings.

BlocPower’s proposal estimates that the installation of air source heat pumps paired with supporting energy efficiency upgrades and other building improvements will cut Ithaca’s 400,000 tons of CO2 by 40 per cent and create 400 new green economy construction, technology and management jobs.

“The City of Ithaca demonstrates its commitment to fight climate change by taking this very important step towards fully decarbonising our building stock”

Concurrently, it will make financing green energy upgrades affordable by providing low-cost loans to building owners, which they will pay back through the significant energy cost savings received.

“At the same time Cop26 takes place in Glasgow, the City of Ithaca demonstrates its commitment to fight climate change by taking this very important step towards fully decarbonising our building stock,” said Savante Myrick, mayor of Ithaca.

“Through this programme, the City expects to eliminate most emissions from energy use in existing residential and commercial buildings, which today account for almost 40 per cent of the total emissions in our city.”