Building Codes and Standards

The buildings sector –including all commercial, industrial and residential energy use for building operations and new building materials- accounts for about half of all energy consumption in the U.S. Many of the buildings in the Northeast are aging and will be replaced or renovated within the next 30 years, which provides a tremendous opportunity to increase their efficiency. Increasing building efficiency will reduce GHG emissions associated with constructing and maintaining these buildings and provide significant cost savings over time.

Background

ENE identified increasing building efficiency as a top priority in the Climate Change Roadmap. As part of advocacy for new codes and enforcement policies, ENE supported a provision in Massachusetts’ latest energy bill that will establish a new certification system to enforce the state’s latest energy code. ENE also engaged in a series of meetings with Maine officials and stakeholders to start moving the state toward a stricter code and strong enforcement. The resulting bill proposal, LD 2179, included many of ENE's recommendations for building efficiency standards, incentives and enforcement. An amended version of the bill, LD 2257, was recently signed into law. ENE's work on building codes draws on experience working with industry and consumer representatives to advance appliance efficiency standards in New England.