The Biden Administration is ramping up efforts to rein in carbon emissions emitted by buildings. President Biden announced the launch of the Building Performance Standards Coalition, a partnership between 33 state and local governments aimed at creating a “cleaner, healthier, and more affordable” building sector. The coalition of governments will cover 20 percent of the nation’s building footprint. The move is an effort to fulfill Biden’s promise to retrofit four million buildings and two million homes during his first term.
The coalition will develop policy roadmaps, identify and act on pre-requisites for building performance standards and complementary policies, and share results and experiences to develop best practices. The coalition will use its breadth of jurisdiction and commitment to lowering emissions to develop new standards, regulations, and policies to assist building owners in lowering emissions from their assets.
“30+ local US gov’ts just committed to working with their communities to equitably decarbonize buildings via co-designed policies and programs. This is a huge move for the future of green building,” The U.S. Green Building Council tweeted.
Building standards are just the first step in what is likely a long line of new regulations aimed at the building sector. Once the standards are set, owners and managers will be able to see where their assets stack up. Failure to meet minimum standards or grades could result in fines or other financial punishments. In the U.K., failure to meet minion energy performance standards prevents landlords from leasing a property until it is brought up to grade. While the United States is still far from that, the recent moves are a sure step in that direction.
