NYC Residential Emissions: Sources and Solutions

Analysis of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions data, collected from the five boroughs, determined that 68% of emissions come from buildings, and the largest proportion of these emissions, 31%, comes from residential buildings.The largest source of emissions within residential buildings is natural gas use, accounting for 58% of all residential building emissions, followed by electricity use, which accounts for 32%. Four solutions were proposed to mitigate residential emissions by targeting natural gas and electricity use in homes, either by reducing their consumption or decarbonizing their use: (1) energy efficiency upgrades, (2) heat pumps, (3) community solar, and (4) waste-to-energy biofuel production. Upgrading building energy efficiency was determined to be the most cost and carbon-effective method of reducing residential emissions because of existing technology and supply chain infrastructure. Implementing community solar and installing heat pump systems was determined to have moderate value, and developing waste-to-energy biofuel production was found to be a high-risk, high-reward solution.