In late January, President Biden announced during his remarks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that his administration is teaming up with states, cities, labor, and industry to launch the Building Performance Standards Coalition, a first-of-its-kind partnership between 33 state and local governments dedicated to delivering cleaner, healthier and more affordable buildings.
With nearly 20 percent of the nation’s building footprint in their jurisdictions, the partnership facilitates new commitments to design and implement building performance standards at the state and local level; create good-paying, union jobs; lower energy bills for consumers; keep residents and workers safe from harmful pollution; and cut emissions from the building sector. The announcement builds upon the Department of Energy’s efforts to upgrade 1 million homes and makes progress toward President Biden’s goal to retrofit 4 million buildings and 2 million homes during his first term.
New federal actions, in tandem with close state and local coordination, will accelerate progress toward reducing building emissions at all levels of government, including states, territories, Tribal nations and local jurisdictions. Federal investments and technical assistance build capacity, expertise, and infrastructure to advance climate action and environmental justice aligned with local- or state-level needs and opportunities.
When building performance standards are designed in partnership with frontline communities and key stakeholders, innovative and equitable solutions can address multiple needs in a community. Energy-efficiency improvements and electrification in multifamily buildings improve indoor
air quality, eliminate drafts and protect residents from extreme heat—delivering health benefits and lower health-care costs. For businesses, high-performing buildings are not only good for the world, they are good for the bottom line, attracting higher occupancy rates and generating more revenue.
The actions build on the $3.5 billion investment for home weatherization in President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, which will make 700,000 homes more energy efficient and lower consumers’ electricity bills, as well as will make $1.8 billion available to state and local governments through DOE to expand building retrofits and policy implementation at the state and local level. And President Biden will continue to work with Congress to extend even more benefits to the American people under the Build Back Better Act.
January’s actions include:
- A NEW BUILDINGS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS COALITION: This partnership forms a coalition of state and local governments that represent more than 22 percent of the American population. Supported by labor unions, philanthropy and non- governmental organizations, the coalition has come together to scale programs and policies that reduce emissions across the buildings sector in local jurisdictions. This first-of-its-kind partnership will unlock energy efficiency and electrification across the buildings sector as an engine for job creation all while lowering energy bills for consumers.
- MOBILIZING FEDERAL ASSISTANCE: DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency also announced a series of actions to kick-start building performance standards and policy innovation across the country. Deploying a range of resources, the agencies will help jurisdictions with analysis support, policy design and implementation tools.
PROPELLING POLICY INNOVATION ACROSS AMERICA’S STATES AND CITIES
The inaugural Building Performance Standards Coalition, which represents more than 15 billion square feet of applicable floor space, has come together to scale programs and policies that reduce emissions across America’s buildings sector.
- ADVANCING STATE AND LOCAL BUILDING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: Thirty-three state and local governments announced their participation in the national Building Performance Standards Coalition, founded on a commitment to work with stakeholders, especially frontline communities, to address health, energy affordability and emissions reductions goals across the buildings sector. This participation includes developing policy roadmaps, convening place-based teams to co-create policy, identifying and acting on prerequisites for building performance standards and complementary policies, and sharing results and experiences to forge a community of practice with the ultimate goal of advancing legislation or regulation in each of the represented jurisdictions by Earth Day 2024.
Coalition members include:
- State of Colorado
- State of Washington
- Ann Arbor, Mich.
- Annapolis, Md.
- Aspen, Colo.
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Cambridge, Mass.
- Chicago
- Chula Vista, Calif.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Denver
- Evanston, Ill.
- Fort Collins, Colo.
- Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Ithaca, N.Y.
- Kansas City, Mo.
- Los Angeles
- Milwaukee
- Montgomery County, Md.
- New York
- Orlando, Fla.
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland, Ore.
- Prince George’s County, Md.
- Reno, Nev.
- Sacramento, Calif.
- Saint Louis
- San Francisco
- Savannah, Ga.
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
- PROACTIVELY PARTNERING WITH THE WORKFORCE: Expanding our nation’s skilled workforce will be required to achieve the collective retrofit goals of coalition members and the president. Members of the nation’s building trades and unions have stepped up to proactively partner with member cities and states to train a local workforce to get the job done. They have pledged to work with coalition members as they implement new building performance standards and policies, recognizing that these policies stimulate economic growth and good- paying union jobs. Efficiency workers earn 28 percent above the national median wage, and union workers have higher median earnings than non-union members.
- In May 2021, the administration announced a set of new programs to grow and train the buildings sector workforce and increase retrofit uptake through a building performance standard for the federal building portfolio. Since then, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has granted more than $25 million to workforce development and job creation leaders to expand the pipeline of high-skill buildings workers, and the EPA has published a white paper to inform the development of building performance standards and disseminated it across the buildings industry. In addition, the administration has charged an interagency team of subject-matter experts to develop the federal building performance standard policy.
- PRIORITIZING EQUITY EXPERTISE AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT: National leaders in equity and environmental justice, community engagement, and building efficiency policy and program design have stepped up to provide policy and equity strategy assistance to coalition members. With support from philanthropic organizations, local governments will ground their climate work in equity and justice through community-driven processes. And non-profit organizations will offer expertise in building decarbonization, including localized policy approaches and stakeholder engagement.
MOBILIZING FEDERAL TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR BUILDING PERFOR- MANCE POLICY AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVELS
DOE and EPA also announced expanded technical-assistance opportunities that can be accessed by Building Performance Standards Coalition members to design, measure and manage local buildings performance policies:
- ACTIVATING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: DOE’s Building Technology Office will support analyses of existing building stocks and will work with local governments to set emissions-reductions goals with the assistance of better data collection tools. Additionally, DOE will share best practices for state and local governments that are adopting building performance standards, including public and private sector financing options, and will provide analytical support to examine how policies targeting emissions reductions in existing buildings can pave the way for minimum new construction building energy codes.
- ENHANCING SUPPORT FROM EPA CLIMATE PROTECTION PARTNERSHIPS DIVISION: EPA will support policy development and implementation, including through analysis and recommendations of metrics and best-practice toolkits. EPA will provide insight into current building energy-use data as the foundation for jurisdiction-specific analysis and target setting and will enhance ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to provide new policy tracking and reporting capability, as well as will assist jurisdictions in using it. EPA will also provide new tools that calculate localized greenhouse-gas emissions to inform reporting, compliance and assessment.
These actions follow a year of inter-agency collaboration to jumpstart building performance policy at the state and local levels, including passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law.