Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
When buildings overheat in winter, people open a window. That single habit explains why urban emissions are so hard to cut.
This episode is about fixing that, without breaking cities or balance sheets.
My guest is Drew Maggio, Technical Director at Highmark Building Efficiency, working at the coalface of building decarbonisation in New York City. Drew helps owners and operators retrofit old, complex buildings under real-world constraints: limited space, tight budgets, legacy systems, and increasingly strict climate regulation.
This matters now because cities are running out of time and excuses. Buildings account for the majority of urban emissions, yet much of the stock was designed for cheap fossil fuels, crude controls, and worst-case thinking that barely reflects how weather actually behaves. Policy pressure is rising, energy prices are volatile, and electrification is no longer optional. The question is no longer if buildings must change, but how to do it intelligently.
Several things in this conversation shifted my thinking. One is how badly we oversize heating systems to cope with rare freezing days, driving up costs and killing viable heat pump projects. Another is the reframing of heat itself, not as waste to be dumped, but as a valuable resource already circulating through wastewater, subways, and buildings. And the third is how regulation, particularly New York’s Local Law 97, is finally forcing practical decisions instead of distant pledges.
This episode avoids silver bullets, hype, and hand-waving. It’s grounded in deployment, trade-offs, and decisions that have to work in dense cities right now.
If you’re responsible for buildings, climate strategy, infrastructure, or policy — and you need emissions reductions that survive contact with reality — this is for you.
If you’re working on this in the real world, I’d be interested in your perspective.
🔗 Podcast website: climateconfidentpodcast.com
🔔 Subscribe for weekly analysis on climate, energy, and decarbonisation
⏱️ Chapters and timestamps below
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Opening windows in winter as climate failure
03:15 – Why old heating systems resist control
07:45 – The hidden cost of designing for worst-case weather
11:20 – Oversized heat pumps and stranded capital
17:45 – Treating heat as a resource, not waste
20:40 – Wastewater and subway heat recovery potential
27:35 – Why buildings, not cars, dominate urban emissions
29:55 – Local Law 97 and forced decarbonisation
33:40 – What smart electrification actually looks like in cities
38:10 – Avoiding future retrofits and stranded assets
When buildings overheat in winter, people open a window. That single habit explains why urban emissions are so hard to cut.
This episode is about fixing that, without breaking cities or balance sheets.
My guest is Drew Maggio, Technical Director at Highmark Building Efficiency, working at the coalface of building decarbonisation in New York City. Drew helps owners and operators retrofit old, complex buildings under real-world constraints: limited space, tight budgets, legacy systems, and increasingly strict climate regulation.
This matters now because cities are running out of time and excuses. Buildings account for the majority of urban emissions, yet much of the stock was designed for cheap fossil fuels, crude controls, and worst-case thinking that barely reflects how weather actually behaves. Policy pressure is rising, energy prices are volatile, and electrification is no longer optional. The question is no longer if buildings must change, but how to do it intelligently.
Several things in this conversation shifted my thinking. One is how badly we oversize heating systems to cope with rare freezing days, driving up costs and killing viable heat pump projects. Another is the reframing of heat itself, not as waste to be dumped, but as a valuable resource already circulating through wastewater, subways, and buildings. And the third is how regulation, particularly New York’s Local Law 97, is finally forcing practical decisions instead of distant pledges.
This episode avoids silver bullets, hype, and hand-waving. It’s grounded in deployment, trade-offs, and decisions that have to work in dense cities right now.
If you’re responsible for buildings, climate strategy, infrastructure, or policy — and you need emissions reductions that survive contact with reality — this is for you.
If you’re working on this in the real world, I’d be interested in your perspective.
🔗 Podcast website: climateconfidentpodcast.com
🔔 Subscribe for weekly analysis on climate, energy, and decarbonisation
⏱️ Chapters and timestamps below
2️⃣ 💡 Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Opening windows in winter as climate failure
03:15 – Why old heating systems resist control
07:45 – The hidden cost of designing for worst-case weather
11:20 – Oversized heat pumps and stranded capital
17:45 – Treating heat as a resource, not waste
20:40 – Wastewater and subway heat recovery potential
27:35 – Why buildings, not cars, dominate urban emissions
29:55 – Local Law 97 and forced decarbonisation
33:40 – What smart electrification actually looks like in cities
38:10 – Avoiding future retrofits and stranded assets
