CITYLENS
HELPING BUILD CITIES OF THE FUTURE
Anis Amir
May 06, 2025
THE STORY
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ty City is legally committed to arbon emissions by 80% by 2035, n electricity by 2040, and carbon by 2050
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70%
50K
15%
36.6
Percentage of city-wide GHG emissions contributed by buildings
Out of a total of million buildings that are covered under existing laws
Percentage of buildings that meet LL97 limits for 2030 as of 2019
million metric tons of GHG emissions from buildings compared to 12M target
Clearly, something is not working
RESEARCH
No Apparent Benefits to Retrofit
For most building owners, a lack of knowledge, or limited information has shown them no reason to go against the status quo
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“Unless you’re going to do a full renovation, there really is no impetus for people to go and make changes to their current state, specially if it’s not required. ”
Mark Gardner - Principal, Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects
No Apparent Benefits to Retrofit
Limited Available Information
For most building owners, a lack of knowledge, or limited information has shown them no reason to go against the status quo
Information around buildings is updated in silos in most cases, and generally within city departments
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“You’re gonna have to figure out how to cope with data availability. We don’t – or at least the city doesn’t – have good data for 95% of the buildings in the city”
Will DiMaggio - Senior Advisor Decarbonization, MOCEJ
No Apparent Benefits to Retrofit
Limited Available Information
Data Complexity is a Key
For most building owners, a lack of knowledge, or limited information has shown them no reason to go against the status quo
Information around buildings is updated in silos in most cases, and generally within city departments
There are a number of different players in the system, and every step is a bureaucratic process
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No Apparent Benefits to Retrofit
Limited Available Information
Legal Requirements Not Enough
Broken Tools and Interfaces
For most building owners, a lack of knowledge, or limited information has shown them no reason to go against the status quo
Information around buildings is updated in silos in most cases, and generally within city departments
Only a fraction of the building stock is covered by any legal requirements.
The market is littered with tools and services that don’t work, and only very few places are capable of handling any coordination between owners and contractors
“There are dozens of data aggregators and maps that aren’t necessarily updated or maintained, and it is a problem”
Bryan Simpson - Chief Decarbonization Officer , NYC DCAS
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What can we do to intervene and accelerate decarbonization?
SOLUTION
CROSS FUNCTIONAL MULTI-USE COMPLETE ACCESSIBLE
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Aggregated Data in Visual Form
CityLens provides possibly the easiest-to-navigate tool for any level of professional, whether they are student researchers or enterprise users
Integrations through APIs
The platform also provides APIs and developer tools for others to integrate our data directly into their models
Analytics and Predictions Tools
Data is also used in an internal predictive analysis tool that lets you predict your needs and deploy resources, saving costs by avoiding delays
Easy Portfolio Management
For property owners, the tool will provide an easy way to track their building energy use, equipment condition, and other metrics
TAM
Total real estate software market globally is estimated to be about $10 Billion
SAM
With a total of a million buildings, and a conservative estimate of 100,000 paying customers who might need building management or data services, a total market of $3 Million is possible just from the city
SOM
Estimating 10% market capture, revenues of up to $300K are possible within the first few years with potential to scale to other places
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Shortened Time Frames
New York’s Climate Change laws aren’t going anywhere, and deadlines need to be met soon
Potential Market Gap
There is a gap in the market for a new product that uses new technologies to provide data
First-Mover Advantage
With nobody else doing this right now, having an API that everyone relies on and getting to that data first gives us the best chance to entrench ourselves
Deteriorating
Political Condition
With current political situation the way it is, we believe that our platform can really make a difference in getting results
Potential for Growth
With an aggressive approach, we can fast become profitable, and break even within a couple of years
Scalability
The platform is scalable, and can be replicated for other cities around the world
Low Maintenance
Maintenance costs are a fraction of what it costs to develop, and can easily be covered by a few subscriptions
“There are 1000s of homeowners and sustainability consultants who could use such a tool”
Jason Block - CadenceOneFive
Develop Prototype
Test Data Pipeline
Find Clients
Develop a live prototype webapp that is usable
Test the data for clarity, cleanliness, and scope usability
Reach out to potential clients and pitch the tool for testing
Test MVP
Test the MVP and find further areas of opportunity
Anis Amir
I am a strategic designer with 6 years of design and digital transformation experience in building enterprise tools and services for a number of industries and clients.