The buildings sector poses a significant climate challenge for local governments across the country. Energy use in buildings contributes one third of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States and represents as much as seventy percent of total GHG emissions in some cities. Building Performance Standards (BPS) are a tool that local governments have been deploying to reduce GHG emissions and promote energy efficiency in buildings. Some local BPS programs require buildings to reduce their energy intensity, while others mandate that buildings lower GHG emissions or intensity. BPS laws are some of the most innovative measures that local governments have taken to mitigate their communities’ contributions to global climate change.
In a new report, New York University’s Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law and Marron Institute of Urban Management provide a retrospective analysis of the implementation of local BPS laws using qualitative and quantitative methods. The report is the most comprehensive analysis of BPS implementation to date.
The report reveals a complex story of challenge and innovation, highlighting the ways that local governments have worked closely with building owners and residents to overcome the difficulties of developing these data-intensive regulatory programs. While it remains too early to assess whether BPS laws will be successful in achieving energy efficiency goals or reducing GHG emissions from the buildings sector, the report provides important lessons and recommendations for local governments considering or implementing BPS policies. For example, the report documents considerable concern among local governments, building owners, and others about the costs of meeting future targets. In practice, local governments are providing buildings with flexible timetables and varying what actions are required to comply with BPS programs during implementation. The report emphasizes the importance of remaining responsive to feedback from building owners, while tracking the effects of flexibility measures on bottom line outcomes; providing financial support and incentives; adequately funding and staffing program implementation; and integrating social and environmental justice considerations. Given the challenges of standing up and implementing new BPS programs, and the potentially high costs of compliance, the report notes that local governments should consider alternative or complementary approaches to building decarbonization beyond BPS policies.
The authors would like to thank the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund for their generous funding to support this research.
