Dec. 7, 2022
When Lucas Parra joined the board at his 47-unit condo in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, he had a simple reason for wanting to undertake a two-pronged capital project. “We needed to do a roof renovation, and I saw it as an opportunity to improve the insulation and install solar panels,” says Parra, 56, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College. “My motivation was the environment. A lot of people in the building were motivated by the way the project would increase the value of their apartments.”Both camps were in for a pleasant surprise. The board got in touch with the nonprofit Solar One, which steered it to a consultation with Andrew Chintz of the NYC Accelerator, a city agency that offers free advice to co-op and condo boards on how to reduce their buildings’ carbon output.“There are a lot of sharks out there, but I was comfortable with Andrew, and…