The City of Ithaca, New York has voted to electrify its entire building stock — the first large-scale, city-wide decarbonization effort in the U.S.
Ithaca’s Common Council gave approval to Mayor Svante L. Myrick to negotiate a contract with BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based climate tech startup focused on greening aging urban buildings.
Installation of air source heat pumps with supporting energy efficiency upgrades and building improvements will cut Ithaca’s 400,000 tons of CO2 by 40% and create 400 new, green jobs, BlocPower estimates. The project is in line with Ithaca’s Green New Deal, which the city approved in 2019 to address climate change, economic inequality, and racial injustice.
