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Case Study

A clean energy future for this Queens public development is… hanging out the window?

NYCHA, the city’s largest residential landlord, has set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon emissions of its buildings. Its test run of window-unit heat pumps in one Queens development offers a promising pathway

Emily Myers

Clean Energy

NYCHA makes a market: Here’s how

To develop a heat pump that didn’t yet exist, New York’s public agencies put up millions in investment, then challenged the market to develop a solution — a strategy that’s seen success before

Miranda Lipton

Policy

Welcome to Skylight

Or: Why create a magazine?

Eric S. Lee

Cool Tech

How do window-unit heat pumps work?

Behind the new heat pumps that are helping to decarbonize NYCHA’s Woodside housing

Miranda Lipton

Profile

Small heat pump, big difference

Residents Maria Lopez and Tammy Reyes on the 2023 NYCHA heat pump pilot that brought more comfort and control into their homes

Miranda Lipton

reports on the clean energy challenge happening right now in New York, illustrating how New Yorkers are tackling decarbonization at home: In their apartments, co-ops, and houses.

Getting Started

Sealing in the benefits of energy efficiency

Project designers explain why air sealing is a crucial component of any energy efficiency project

Mary Cunningham

Profile

The birth of an organizer

Anna Nemetz’s journey from freezing renter to tenant leader

Benjamin Schneider

Explainer

What is Local Law 97?

Skylight’s all-in-one explainer of New York City’s landmark building decarbonization law — and what it means for the city’s residential buildings.

Annalisa Merelli

Ask a Cooperator

“Read the F*cking Manual!”

A Q&A with Chris McGinnis, a former IBM worker and longtime co-op resident who made it his mission to learn how buildings work so he could make his own more efficient

Hannah Berman

Going Big

All-electrics aren’t all created equal

What’s right for your building — heat pumps, or electric resistance heaters?

Benjamin Schneider

Case Study

Pilot light: HDFC co-op pioneers a new strategy for air-source heat pumps

Inside the pilot program that helped this LMI Manhattan co-op lean less heavily on #2 heating oil

Jane Margolies

Profile

Eric Bluestone talks solar strategy

Bluestone, president at the Bluestone Organization, is putting solar anywhere he can

Sunny Nagpaul

Case Study

Rent-stabilized tenants fight for an energy efficient retrofit — and win

Demands for efficiency pay off for tenants in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights in the form of brand-new heat pumps

Emily Myers

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Edition 6
April 2025

Case Study

In the South Bronx, this co-op sets a high standard

How one working-class cooperative took an incremental approach to improving efficiency, and found savings along the way

Marlowe Starling

Profile

Getting under the hood with Derek K. Jones

What drove this South Bronx cooperator to lead his building toward solar and more

Demi Guo

Financing

“We have to be very smart with how we are using money.”

How this South Bronx co-op maximized impact without sacrificing budget

Demi Guo

Efficiency

Real Time Energy Management (RTEM) tech offers real savings opportunities

Meet the NYSERDA-backed tech that saved Sherman Terrace more than $53,000 on energy in one year

Demi Guo

NYCHA, the city’s largest resi­den­tial land­lord, has set ambi­tious goals to reduce the carbon emis­sions of its build­ings. Its test run of window-unit heat pumps in one Queens devel­op­ment offers a promising pathway

To develop a heat pump that didn’t yet exist, New York’s public agen­cies put up millions in invest­ment, then chal­lenged the market to develop a solu­tion — a strategy that’s seen success before

Or: Why create a magazine?

Behind the new heat pumps that are helping to decar­bonize NYCHA’s Woodside housing

Residents Maria Lopez and Tammy Reyes on the 2023 NYCHA heat pump pilot that brought more comfort and control into their homes

Project designers explain why air sealing is a crucial compo­nent of any energy effi­ciency project

Anna Nemetz’s journey from freezing renter to tenant leader

Skylight’s all-in-one explainer of New York City’s land­mark building decar­boniza­tion law — and what it means for the city’s resi­den­tial buildings.

A Q&A with Chris McGinnis, a former IBM worker and long­time co-op resi­dent who made it his mission to learn how build­ings work so he could make his own more efficient

What’s right for your building — heat pumps, or elec­tric resis­tance heaters?

Inside the pilot program that helped this LMI Manhattan co-op lean less heavily on #2 heating oil

Bluestone, pres­i­dent at the Bluestone Organization, is putting solar anywhere he can

Demands for effi­ciency pay off for tenants in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights in the form of brand-new heat pumps

Edition 6 April 2025

How one working-class coop­er­a­tive took an incre­mental approach to improving effi­ciency, and found savings along the way

What drove this South Bronx coop­er­ator to lead his building toward solar and more

How this South Bronx co-op maxi­mized impact without sacri­ficing budget

Meet the NYSERDA-backed tech that saved Sherman Terrace more than $53,000 on energy in one year

NYCHA, the city’s largest residential landlord, has set ambitious goals to reduce the carbon emissions of its buildings. Its test run of window-unit heat pumps in one Queens development offers a promising pathway

To develop a heat pump that didn’t yet exist, New York’s public agencies put up millions in investment, then challenged the market to develop a solution — a strategy that’s seen success before

Behind the new heat pumps that are helping to decarbonize NYCHA’s Woodside housing

Project designers explain why air sealing is a crucial component of any energy efficiency project

Skylight’s all-in-one explainer of New York City’s landmark building decarbonization law — and what it means for the city’s residential buildings.

A Q&A with Chris McGinnis, a former IBM worker and longtime co-op resident who made it his mission to learn how buildings work so he could make his own more efficient

What’s right for your building — heat pumps, or electric resistance heaters?

Bluestone, president at the Bluestone Organization, is putting solar anywhere he can

Demands for efficiency pay off for tenants in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights in the form of brand-new heat pumps

Edition 6
April 2025

How one working-class cooperative took an incremental approach to improving efficiency, and found savings along the way

What drove this South Bronx cooperator to lead his building toward solar and more

How this South Bronx co-op maximized impact without sacrificing budget