How L.A.’s Green New Deal Will Impact Property Owners

Los Angeles has announced L.A.’s Green New Deal, which sets a goal of reducing building energy use 22% per square foot by 2025.

Los Angeles has presented its own version of the Green New Deal. The sustainability plan is to increase the city’s current energy reduction goals. Overall, the plan aims to move the city’s power to 55% renewable energy sources by 2025, 80% by 2036, and 100% by 2045. For commercial real estate specifically, the plan requires property owners reduce building energy consumption by 22% per square foot by 2025, 34% by 2035 and 44% by 2050.

Local green legislation is becoming more popular, but Manfre says that cities need to make sure to balance the needs of environmental efforts and goals with the goals of the owner. “Something that cities need to keep in mind when drafting legislation is that not all buildings are the same,” he says. “I think that a lot of times, if you are not within the industry, you think it is easy or reasonable to reduce building consumption by 20% or 30%, but it is important to understand how the building was designed, the infrastructure and the demand on the buildings.”

Understanding the building usage is among the most important details for cities to consider. Office buildings are becoming denser and tenants need access to a broad range of tools and technology. “The type of tenant that owners have to satisfy has changed, and the density within the space has changed,” adds Manfre. “That has put different loads on the systems. When you are looking at ways to enact policy, you have to keep that in mind.”