How NYCEDC Is Accelerating Decarbonization Across 64 Million Square Feet of City Assets

To move from ambition to execution, NYCEDC prioritized one foundational step: centralizing all utility and emissions data into a single, trusted platform. 

Using Tango Energy & Sustainability, NYCEDC automated the collection and normalization of utility data across owned, city-managed, and tenant-managed accounts – dramatically lowering the barrier to tenant participation while improving data integrity and visibility. 

Must-have capabilities for NYCEDC included: 

• Automated ingestion of large volumes of historical and ongoing invoice data 

• Structured data extraction from unstructured PDFs 

• Flexible reporting and custom dashboards to support different audiences – from asset managers to tenants to department officials 

• Integration-ready data outputs to feed internal models and analysis 

For the first time, NYCEDC had a comprehensive, portfolio-wide view of energy use, costs, and emissions – grounded in data they could trust. This foundation enabled them to set baselines and begin the real work towards achieving their goals. As Matt Landin, NYCEDC’s Vice President of Energy, Asset Management, stated, “We chose Tango Energy and Sustainability because it could handle the complex realities of our portfolio with multiple account types, tenant-held accounts, and different integration paths while producing structured and easily exportable data. Just as important was the user-friendly nature of the platform that made deep insights easy to see and easy to communicate or share with reporting that can be tailored to different audiences.”

With centralized, finance-grade energy and emissions data in place, NYCEDC has begun to see tangible operational and strategic results across the organization. 

With baselines and targets now grounded in real portfolio data, the team can quantify emissions abatement and cost savings, compare performance across assets, and build credible business cases for project investment. That same clarity improves tenant conversations: Instead of asking for data with no visible payoff, NYCEDC can demonstrate how participation connects to measurable outcomes. For an organization managing 64 million square feet of assets, this clarity fundamentally informed how decisions were made. 

Just as important, automation dramatically reduced the operational burden of managing utility data. Processes that once required hours of manual effort – such as retrieving, organizing, and analyzing years of invoices – were reduced to seconds. This translated to an estimated 98% reduction in time spent on data collection and organization, freeing the team to focus on strategy rather than administration tasks. 

This efficiency proved essential as NYCEDC’s energy team continues to scale its responsibilities. Because the energy and sustainability function sits within asset management, the team’s days encompass everything from capital planning strategy to coordinating with tenants, property managers, and city agencies. By automating data collection and simplifying reporting, NYCEDC can now devote more attention to the strategic work of designing climate programs, evaluating efficiency projects, and mapping out its credible pathway to net zero.  

Improved data access and clarity have also proven to be a powerful tool for alignment. When targets, emissions abatement, and cost savings become measurable, sustainability initiatives then become defensible to the people who matter—tenants, investors, and public stakeholders. The storytelling aspect of data cannot be understated, as it goes beyond marketing, directly influencing how projects get prioritized and funded. Tangible utility data makes the work legible. Projects are comparable, and decarbonization is justifiable, rather than something the organization simply aspires to. For example, asset managers may need direct proof of cost savings and performance signals. Tenants need proof of benefit and low-friction ways to share data. City and public officials need a clear picture of outcomes at a holistic portfolio-wide level. As NYC portfolio-widens its work across capital projects and sustainable construction, the ability to turn data into a clear, repeatable narrative will be central to scaling impact and steering NYC towards a better vision for the future. 

NYCEDC’s decarbonization work also sits within the City’s broader Green Economy Action Plan – a long-term strategy to drive climate impact while growing jobs, investment, and equitable economic opportunity across New York City. The plan calls for better data, stronger coordination across public and private stakeholders, and practical mechanisms to turn climate ambition into measurable outcomes. As NYCEDC has advanced its energy and sustainability program, this foundation has helped connect portfolio-level decarbonization efforts to wider economic and workforce goals outlined in the Action Plan. 

As NYCEDC’s decarbonization efforts increasingly intersect with citywide economic and workforce priorities, the need for a common, trusted source of truth became essential. Rather than serving as a static reporting tool, the platform became a shared foundation for collaboration, enabling different teams to engage with the same information through perspectives that matched their priorities, whether financial, operational, or climate-focused. 

NYCEDC’s work is far from finished – but with the right foundation in place, they are poised to accelerate the next phase of climate action. They are evolving toward a more holistic climate action framework that encompasses not only operational emissions but also embodied carbon across construction and capital projects 

By pairing ambitious climate goals with finance-grade data and scalable processes, NYCEDC is demonstrating what’s possible when cities treat sustainability as a strategic advantage, not a constraint.