Los Angeles is taking steps to move toward net-zero carbon emissions—beginning with its own city buildings. Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion on March 22 instructing city staff to look into switching city-owned buildings from gas-powered systems to renewable energy systems, and to evaluate potential costs and timelines to retrofit the buildings. City buildings account for 32 percent of the city’s carbon emissions, according to Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who introduced the motion last June. “As our electric grid has shifted to cleaner, renewable energy sources, the electrification of previously gas-powered systems within our city buildings, in particular, has become an increasingly critical step to reduce the City’s total carbon emissions,” Raman wrote in the motion. Raman touted the benefits of retrofitting city buildings in her motion. The councilwoman said that emissions from city buildings fell 44 percent from 2008 to 2017 after the Department of Water and Power …