NYC Local Law 97 (LL97) in Scaler

This article explains how Local Law 97 (LL97) is represented in Scaler, including which buildings are considered in scope, how emissions performance is evaluated, and how LL97 analytics can be used to support compliance monitoring and decision-making.

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are regulations that require large buildings to meet progressively stricter energy or carbon emissions limits over time.

Local Law 97 (LL97) is New York City's Building Performance Standard. It mandates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions for large buildings and penalizes owners that exceed defined emissions thresholds.

Scaler supports LL97 by calculating emissions intensity, assigning applicable thresholds based on property type, and visualizing compliance status for eligible assets.

Tip: The easiest way to view LL97 compliance for your portfolio is the Local Regulations page in Analytics Portal. This article explains the methodology behind what you see there. See Using the Local Regulations page.

LL97 and LL84 both apply to large NYC buildings — it's easy to confuse them. They do different things and work together.

LL84 came first (in effect since 2012). When disclosure alone wasn't moving the needle on NYC's climate goals, LL97 was added in 2019, with enforcement beginning in 2024.

In Scaler, LL97 compliance appears in the Building Performance Standards section of the Local Regulations page, and LL84 reporting obligations appear in the Benchmarking section.

Local Law 97 applies to buildings that meet one of the following criteria:

Applicability criteria, emissions intensity thresholds, and penalty rates are set by the NYC Department of Buildings and may be revised over time — for the authoritative current source, see the NYC Department of Buildings LL97 page.

Scaler's current scope

Scaler currently evaluates LL97 applicability only for single buildings exceeding 25,000 gross square feet. Tax lot aggregation and condominium ownership structures are not automatically evaluated at this time.

Scaler evaluates whether an asset is subject to LL97 using location, size, and property type criteria.

An asset is considered subject to LL97 if:

If Postal code is unavailable, Scaler attempts to infer location from the City field (e.g., "New York", "Brooklyn", "Bronx").

LL97 applies only if the asset's Gross floor area exceeds 25,000 square feet.

Why Building Units are required

LL97 emissions intensity thresholds vary by property type. A single building can contain multiple property types—for example, retail on the ground floor and residential on upper floors. Each property type has a different LL97 threshold.

Building Units allow Scaler to:

Coverage requirement

Building Units must collectively cover 100% of the asset's GFA – Tenant area. Without complete coverage, Scaler cannot calculate LL97 compliance.

Each Building Unit requires:

To verify which property types are ESPM-aligned, see Property-type mapping (GRESB, CRREM, ULI, ESPM).

For assets with a single property type, Scaler applies the LL97 emissions intensity threshold corresponding to that property type.

For assets with multiple property types, Scaler calculates a weighted emissions intensity threshold based on each Building Unit's floor area and property type.

WEIGHTED_TARGET = Σ(UNIT_AREA × LL97_THRESHOLD_FOR_UNIT_TYPE) ÷ Σ(UNIT_AREA)

This ensures mixed-use buildings are evaluated proportionally across their constituent uses.

Scaler compares the asset's actual emissions intensity to its applicable LL97 threshold:

Result categories:

Civil penalty: Non-compliant assets accrue a civil penalty of $268 per metric ton of CO2e above the applicable threshold. Penalty rates are set by the NYC Department of Buildings and may be revised — for the authoritative current rate, see the NYC Department of Buildings LL97 page.

To calculate LL97 compliance, the following fields must be populated:

Asset-level fields:

Building Unit fields:

Recommended:

Navigate to: Data Collection Portal → Asset → Building Units

For each Building Unit:

To verify which property types are ESPM-aligned, see Property-type mapping (GRESB, CRREM, ULI, ESPM).

For more detail on filling in Building Unit fields, see Building units: Setting up & entering data.

Navigate to: Analytics Portal → Portfolio → Regulatory → Local Regulations

The Building Performance Standards section shows portfolio-level LL97 compliance status, estimated penalty exposure, and year-by-year detail for each in-scope asset. For a full walkthrough, see Using the Local Regulations page.

Navigate to: Analytics Portal → Portfolio → Asset List

The BPS: LL97 column displays compliance status for all applicable assets in your portfolio.

Separate from the LL97 compliance status above, you can configure custom pathways in the Roadmap Tool (for example, a custom LL97 trajectory) and view asset performance against them.

Navigate to: Analytics Portal → Portfolio/Asset → Roadmap Analysis → GHG Emissions

Important: Custom pathways and planned Roadmap measures are independent from the LL97 compliance check shown on the Local Regulations page. The BPS compliance status reflects an asset's actual emissions vs. its statutory LL97 limit only — it does not yet factor in planned measures from the Roadmap Tool. To compare a planned-retrofit pathway against the LL97 limit, use the Roadmap Analysis GHG chart visually.

To learn how to set up custom pathways, see Setting and viewing targets, pathways & benchmarks.

If LL97 compliance does not appear for an asset, it is typically due to one or more of the following: