This document is meant as an introductory brief for jurisdictions working on BPS to develop strategies, policies, and programs that address housing affordability and counteract displacement in that context. There is no one-size-fits all solution to addressing the myriad of issues related to housing affordability across jurisdictions, but this document seeks to describe the landscape of considerations and propose vetted paths forward.
The City of Boston's 2019 Climate Action Plan (CAP) update identified high-priority strategies to accelerate progress toward the goal of making carbon neutral by 2050.
The City of Portland has an ambitious commitment to be fossil-free by 2050 through its 100% Renewable Energy Resoultion, and the city is also a signatory to the C40 Net Zero Carbon Buildings Declaration.
While performance elements tell employees what they have to do, the standards tell them how well they have to do it. The first article in this series defined and reviewed the characteristics of critical, non-critical, and additional performance elements. This article reviews the principles of writing good standards that can be used effectively to appraise employee performance of those elements.
Opportunities to Advance Demand This document is written to guide state and local governments that are developing a building performance standard in thinking through how it might encourage demand flexibility.
The costs of building energy improvement could be prohibitive for many affordable multifamily property owners and managers, but exempting them misses an opportunity to decarbonize buildings and improve energy equity for residents. This paper identifies potential solutions for improved energy performance of affordable housing.
Electrification is a key component of a comprehensive city decarbonization strategy. How can cities use building performance standards to advance electrification?
As leading cities and states seek to meet their aggressive climate, energy, and decarbonization goals, they are turning increasingly to mandatory policies that require improved energy and emissions performance across their existing building stock. The most comprehensive of these policies is the BPS, in which performance thresholds are set that building owners must meet at a specified time or when a triggering event occurs. A BPS can address a range of emissions, energy and grid-related goals. This paper examines technical approaches used to set the key metrics for both buildings and fuels in performance standard legislation.
This document provides a high-level overview of the Institute for Market Transformation’s (IMT) model ordinance for a building performance standard (BPS).
IMT’s model ordinance is intended to provide the structural foundation for a strong BPS ordinance in any jurisdiction.
This module is meant to provide a starting point for jurisdictions to engage with community members on building-related issues that are important to the community.