Building Performance Standards
Resource Libarary

Explore our curated collection of Builiding Performance Standards Resources to help policy makers create meaningful standards and building owners effectively understand and implement them.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

A Guide to Energy Audits

A report outlining what an energy audit is and how they can be used to improve the performance of a building.

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Resources for the Future

Leading by Example: Building Performance Standards for Decarbonizing Federal Buildings

This report considers the options for implementing a building performance standard across a broader scope of buildings and geography than a single city or state: federally owned or leased buildings, which comprise 1 billion square feet across the country.

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Resources for the Future

Building Performance Standards: Lessons from Carbon Policy

This report assesses the various tradeoffs and challenges of designing building performance standards (BPS) in order to facilitate compliance and promote cost-effectiveness.

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BPS Needs Assessment

This needs assessment provides the industry needs to establish and implement the BPS from the market perspective.

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ASHRAE Building Performance Standards: A Technical Resource Guide (Forthcoming)

To support policymakers and interested professionals in this process, ASHRAE convened a BPS Working Group under its Task Force on Building Decarbonization (TFBD) that is working to produce a Technical Resource Guide that guides jurisdictions through the target-setting process and outlines the available methodology options. The guide also provides additional background in metric selection.

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ASHRAE Building Performance Standards OverviewPDF

This document developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Task Force for Building Decarbonization provides an overview of the BPS development process, including considerations such as performance target-setting, implementation and enforcement timelines, equitable policy application, and compliance support. ASHRAE also compiled a list of BPS Resources and PublicationsPDF that provide an overview of BPS policy elements, performance metrics, relation with new construction, and available compliance tools.

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OUTCOME-BASED CODES FOR CITIES

This document provides jurisdictions with a new approach to shift their focus towards actual, measurable energy results and provides guidance for incorporating an outcome-based compliance path into current energy codes. The guide includes draft regulatory language as a framework around which jurisdictions can begin to align their energy goals through their building codes

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20% STRETCH CODE PROVISIONS

The 20% Stretch Code Provisions measures are the first outcome of a larger project that is focused directly on the technical development of stretch codes and standards, and on support for jurisdictions in adopting and implementing these policies. As jurisdictions move forward with the adoption of codes and policies that support building stock performance improvement, a set of increasingly stringent performance metrics are anticipated, ranging from a 20% improvement over baseline code performance to a policy that delivers zero energy performance in buildings.

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MOVING ENERGY CODES FORWARD: A GUIDE FOR CITIES AND STATES

Moving Energy Codes Forward: A Guide for Cities and States provides critical steps to achieve significant code improvements through the adoption of stretch codes and provides a practical framework for implementing advanced codes and outcome policies. It offers guidance, resources and examples of advanced code adoption based on New Buildings Institute's stretch code development and adoption experience working with states and communities.

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Model Stretch Code Provisions for a 20% Performance Improvement in New Commercial Construction

This summary document describes a set of code strategies that represent a 20% performance improvement for commercial buildings over the ASHRAE 90.1-2013 code baseline (and approximately similar savings over the IECC 2015 baseline).

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The Technical Basis of Building Performance Standards

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.

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Building Decarbonization Code

The Building Decarbonization Code is a groundbreaking tool aiming to deliver carbon neutral performance. The Version 1.2 code language from NBI serves as a building decarbonization overlay to the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and is now compatible with ASHRAE 90.1. It is designed to help states and cities working to mitigate carbon resulting from energy use in the built environment, which accounts for 39% of U.S. emissions.

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