This toolkit from the EPA is meant to support jurisdictions seeking to decarbonize their building stock through policy. The toolkit includes four sections, each with their own focus: an overview of benchmarking and transparency, an overview of building performance standards (BPS), coordination of benchmarking and BPS for state and local governments, and data access. EPA staff encourages policymakers and other relevant players to get in touch for support - particularly concerning data access and Portfolio Manager use in BPS.

This landing page includes resources for developing benchmarking policies and building performance standards (BPS), including guidance for getting started and considering complementary policies, as well as technical assistance for benchmarking policies, utility data access, setting goals and evaluating impacts, and developing BPS frameworks, metrics, and targets.

This document describes EPA's recommendations for building performance standards (BPS) metrics to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, it discusses normalization methods for these metrics, and outlines future resources EPA will produce to support BPS policy design and implementation.

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.

This white paper provides a framework and supporting analysis to help policymakers and commercial and multifamily building stakeholders understand the key differences among performance metrics and choose those best suited to building performance standard policies. The paper also proposes a complementary zero-carbon building recognition.

EPA’s Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Toolkit aims to inform and support state and local government decision makers who are exploring policies to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing commercial and multifamily buildings in their communities. This section of the toolkit focuses on building energy benchmarking and transparency policies. It provides information about what is needed for these policies, lists key considerations for success, and demonstrates how government leaders have used benchmarking as an initial step for enacting building performance standards. The toolkit includes four sections—each intended to build on the previous section— that focus on different aspects of policy development

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).