The Biden administration is teaming up with states, cities, labor, and industry to launch the National 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. President Joe Biden announced the new coalition during his remarks at the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors’ winter meeting on Jan 21.
With nearly 20% of the nation’s building footprint in their jurisdictions representing more than 15 billion square feet of applicable floor space, 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, according to the White House.
Participating state and local governments will develop policy roadmaps; convene place-based teams to co-create policy; identify and act on pre-requisites for building performance standards and complementary policies; and share 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.
Inaugural coalition members include:
- State of Colorado
- State of Washington
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Annapolis, MD
- Aspen, CO
- Atlanta, GA
- Boston, MA
- Cambridge, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Chula Vista, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Denver, CO
- Evanston, IL
- Fort Collins, CO
- Grand Rapids, MI
- Ithaca, NY
- Kansas City, MO
- Los Angeles, CA
- Milwaukee, WI
- Montgomery County, MD
- New York, NY
- Orlando, FL
- Philadelphia, PA
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Portland, OR
- Prince George’s County, MD
- Reno, NV
- Sacramento, CA
- Saint Louis, MO
- San Francisco, CA
- Savannah, GA
- Seattle, WA
- Washington, D.C.
According to the White House, members of the country’s building trades and unions have stepped up to proactively partner with member cities and states to train a local workforce and help reach retrofit goals. Furthermore, the Biden administration is mobilizing federal assistance. Deploying a range of resources, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency will help jurisdictions with analysis support, policy design, and implementation tools.
Building industry leaders, unions, state and local elected officials, environmental organizations, philanthropic leaders, and more have applauded the newly launched coalition.
Learn more about the coalition at its dedicated website here.