Ithaca is first U.S. city to begin 100% decarbonization of buildings

Far from Glasgow and COP26, Ithaca, New York, just made an unprecedented move to tackle climate change and the city’s carbon footprint. In a unanimous vote on Wednesday night, Ithaca’s city council approved the full decarbonization of its buildings.

It is the first U.S. city to begin operation on a 100% decarbonization plan, but it won’t be the last, and its focus on buildings and its use of private financing to support the effort show how more urban models to tackle emissions may develop and even leapfrog federal and state efforts.

“On decarbonization, and frankly, just about every issue … no one is coming to save us. Whether on climate or infrastructure … we have more determination we will have to save ourselves,” said Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick. “This is the biggest step we’ve taken towards decarbonization and maybe the biggest step any city has taken.”

Cities have been dubbed as the laboratories of democracy, where new ideas include new forms of social investment and infrastructure and new models of governance get tried out, and on climate policy, it is small cities like Ithaca and Des Moines, Iowa, that are poised to lead. Both cities are part of a new UN-led consortium on climate called the 24/7 Carbon-free Energy Compact which also includes Google.

“Not enough attention is being paid to what works in small American cities, and that’s not unique to decarbonization,” Myrick said.

Ithaca had already lined up $100 million in private financing over the summer to support the effort from private equity partner Alturus. Its building energy efficiency partner BlocPower is in place and the city is ready to begin going into buildings and start the work on Thursday.

“We are ready to go, Day One,” said the city’s sustainability director Luis Aguirre-Torres.

Ithaca’s energy efficiency partner BlocPower, which is a CNBC Disruptor 50 company, brought the investors on board to pay the upfront costs of the buildings project. BlocPower founder and CEO Bonnel Baird recently told CNBC that 100 million buildings across the U.S. waste $100 billion a year on fossil fuels. “There are significant savings that can be introduced,” Baird said.

Ithaca’s plan will cover electrification projects for 1,000 residential buildings and 600 commercial buildings in the first phase of a total 6,000 building inventory.

For Ithaca, buildings are the first target for several reasons. Forty percent of its buildings were constructed before 1940 and buildings represent 40% of its carbon emissions profile. The city already receives 80% of its power supply from hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, whereas in other cities transitioning the power fleet may take precedence.

“The fact that we have 80% power generation from renewables makes my job quicker, but not easier,” Aguirre-Torres said. The project is the largest of its kind in the country,…