The problem of energy waste in New York City buildings is often illustrated by residents opening windows in winter to let out excess heat. This is due to landlords keeping thermostats high enough to warm the coldest apartments, which overheats others—a scenario some refer to as the “lowest common denominator problem.”
However, newer apartment buildings face a different issue: their HVAC systems often run continuously, regardless of actual need. These systems prevent units from becoming too hot or cold, so residents are not opening windows, but energy waste still occurs out of sight.
Brad Pilgrim, founder of Toronto-based company Parity, explained with an analogy: “Let’s say you drink coffee once or twice a day. What if the coffeemaker runs 24-7-365? That’s kind of how a building runs.”
Founded in 2017, Parity set out to address this inefficiency. Pilgrim sought cities with climates featuring both cold winters and hot summers, high energy costs, and numerous large residential buildings—criteria that led him to New York City. The passage of Local Law 97 added further incentive by setting emissions caps for large buildings. “It’s sort of like a triple threat,” Pilgrim said.
Parity now conducts more than half its business in New York and also operates in Boston, New Jersey, California, Toronto, and the Washington D.C. metro area. The company targets mid-rise multifamily and high-rise luxury buildings around 75,000 square feet where equipment does not operate efficiently together. Its platform monitors building equipment and sends new operating instructions as needed to optimize power use while maintaining comfort levels.
If certain equipment cannot be integrated with Parity’s platform directly, the company uses off-the-shelf solutions rather than custom products. Pilgrim stated: “Our typical customers see a payback of 2 to 2.5 years,” referencing case studies on Parity’s website. The firm charges installation and monthly service fees.
To address skepticism among building owners about unseen energy savings versus visible renovations like lobby upgrades, Parity guarantees savings and compensates clients if targets are not met. Pilgrim commented: “Energy is invisible, it’s not tangible. It’s not like a lobby retrofit… HVAC optimization and energy management is complicated, and you don’t see it. So it’s more difficult for someone to tie value to it.” He added that real estate professionals tend toward pragmatic investments in familiar solutions; his product only became feasible with cloud computing advancements and may sound “too good to be true” for some.
Last year Parity raised $19 million in Series B funding led by Idealist Capital; the company employs fewer than 50 people and manages nearly 100 million square feet for clients.
While extreme weather limits potential savings because HVAC systems must run at full capacity during those times, Parity can pre-condition buildings ahead of peak demand periods to help reduce consumption when electricity grids are under stress. During an incident last June when a blackout was narrowly avoided in New York City, Parity helped about 30 buildings cut their collective electricity use by approximately one megawatt through a demand response program—though Pilgrim noted that Parity is not itself a demand response aggregator.
Other proptech companies offer similar services aiming both to save property owners money and support state climate goals by easing pressure on the electrical grid during peak periods—a concern highlighted recently when the New York Independent Systems Operator warned that grid reliability could be at risk as soon as next year.
“Strain on the grid,” Pilgrim said, “is becoming a real problem.”
