Sustainability Guidelines

HCR has set out on a path to meeting New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act ("Climate Act”), which mandates at least an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, compared to New York State’s 1990 carbon emission levels. For buildings, this will mean dramatically improving efficiency by increasing the performance of building envelopes and hot water consuming appliances/fixtures and replacing fossil fuel combusting equipment with efficient electric solutions.

Electrification of heating and hot water systems in nearly all buildings is a key strategy for building decarbonization and depends upon energy efficiency improvements in all buildings and 100% zero emissions electricity.

HCR has developed a new set of Sustainability guidelines for all New Construction projects.  The criteria for these Guidelines have been developed to ensure minimum standards of quality, function and durability of projects funded by the Housing Finance Agency and the Housing Trust Fund Corporation. 

HCR has developed a set of Sustainability Guidelines for all existing building construction projects. Existing building construction projects are defined as adaptive reuse, substantial rehabilitation, and moderate rehabilitation. The criteria for these Guidelines have been developed to ensure minimum standards of quality, function and durability of projects funded by the Housing Finance Agency and the Housing Trust Fund Corp. The Sustainability Guidelines are broken into three sections:

Core Sustainability Requirements: Outlines the core project requirements and eligible third-party certification programs that must be met by all projects. Requirements vary based on the type of existing building project being pursued.

Building Performance Requirements: Outlines the efficiency and technical requirements for all major building systems and applies to existing building projects based on the project’s scope of work.

Additional Sustainability Requirements: Outlines additional sustainability requirements outside of the major building systems, for example, including indoor environmental quality practices, resiliency and solar. All existing building projects must at minimum comply with the baseline requirements listed for their project type.

Projects are required to achieve the baseline standards listed in each of these three sections. However, projects are encouraged to explore the feasibility of the stretch goals, as they set the precedent for future baseline standards.

The Preservation Sustainability Guidebook: For Operations Repairs and Renovations should be used as a performance and sustainability guide tool for any property under regulation with HFA, HTFC, Mitchell Lama, or any other HCR issued program that is looking to utilize replacement reserves or make a capital investments to the property. The Guidebook is applicable only to intended improvement areas a property is actively looking to make at the time of review. This tool should help property owners and operators consider the full useful life of existing equipment, evaluate whether a repair or replacement is appropriate, and consider interaction and synergies between buildings systems and the State's goal to improve indoor air quality and reduce onsite carbon emissions.

As part of the updates in the 2025 HCR Sustainability Guidelines, HCR has developed NYS-specific resilience tools to help project teams assess their properties for climate risk exposures.

HCR’s Resilience Checklists for New Construction and for Existing Buildings take building owners through a multi-hazard risk assessment for coastal and riverine flooding, stormwater flooding, extreme heat, and strong winds.

The checklists are then divided into:

• Baseline: Required for all properties.

• Exposed: Required only for buildings that are identified as exposed to the applicable hazard in the resilience assessment.

• Stretch: Optional guidelines that maximize resilience.

All New Construction projects are required to have a complete HCR Resilience Checklist in their application and are required to comply with all requirements, as applicable.

Existing Buildings are strongly recommended to utilize the HCR Resilience Checklist for Existing Buildings and meet with any recommendations.

Please note that HCR Sustainability will complete the checklist on behalf of all project teams and present the results prior to application.

“All waivers that are requested from the design and/or sustainability requirements set forth by the Agency shall be submitted to the HCR Design, Construction and Environmental Unit (DC&E) or the HCR Sustainability Team for review. Requests to waive a requirement will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Vice President of DC&E, the Vice President of Sustainability and/or the respective DC&E Unit Director. Other offices of the Agency and the Vice President of Multifamily Finance will be consulted when necessary. Evaluations of waiver requests will include the determinations of the appropriateness of the proposed alternative with emphasis on:

• Alignment with the HCR Sustainability Standards Roadmap

• Impacts on operating costs/efficiency

• Impact to the residents

• Cost-effectiveness

• Functional appropriateness

• Durability and operating appropriateness
 

All waiver requests must be submitted via the Design Waiver Request Form and must be received 30 calendar days prior to each required submission.

Example Maintenance Checklists

The following operations and maintenance resources are examples of possible maintenance and corrective actions for heat pump equipment. This information should not be considered an exhaustive list of problems, causes, or solutions, but should instead be referred to as guidance. Please refer to the manufacturer for comprehensive and product-specific maintenance requirements, recommendations, and solutions. Maintenance and corrective actions must only be conducted by qualified operators and technicians under the permission of building management and ownership. HCR does not represent that the actions provided in these examples guarantee proper operation or correction of problems.