U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative Selects the Building Codes Assistance Project and Center for Sustainable Energy to Provide Solar Training and Education to Design Professionals

Posted on May 17, 2016February 2, 2017 by Kamaria Greenfield

CONTACT: Maria EllingsonBuilding Codes Assistance Project419-724-4571mellingson@bcapcodes.org Ian MonahanCenter for Sustainable Energy858-634-4927

ACEEE State Scorecard Evaluates Building Energy Codes

Posted on October 27, 2015May 20, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Earlier this month, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) published their state scorecard rankings. Out of a possible seven points in the building energy codes category, here is how each state fared: 7 Points California, Illinois 6.5 Points Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Washington 6 Points District of Columbia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Texas ...

High Performance Schools: Northeast States Paving The Way For This And Future Generations

Posted on June 24, 2015July 28, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Each year, K-12 schools spend around $8 billion on energy nationwide. They use 10% of the energy used by all commercial buildings and are the third biggest energy user of all commercial building types (U.S. EPA, 2011). What if these schools were built to be more energy-efficient and sustainable? What if building and operating high-performance school buildings were a natural part of the school design and construction practice? Carolyn Sarno Goldthwaite, Senior Program Manager for the Northeast E...

DOE Issues Final Determination On The 2015 IECC

Posted on June 11, 2015May 23, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

The Department of Energy has announced findings on energy savings from adopting and complying with the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Compared with residential buildings meeting the 2012 IECC, the 2015 edition achieves national source energy savings of approximately 0.87 percent, site energy savings of approximately 0.98 percent, and energy cost savings of 0.73 percent of residential building energy consumption. With the final determination established, each state is now req...

My View: Utah Needs New Energy Codes That Make Buildings, Homes More Efficient

Posted on June 7, 2015May 6, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

By David Brems and Kevin Emerson via Deseret News Air pollution is a top concern for Utah citizens. So is financial stability. Improving our air quality while saving money for Utahns is a win-win opportunity. This summer, decision-makers will be voting whether or not to adopt up-to-date building energy codes that will help new homes and buildings constructed in Utah cut energy waste, lower air pollution and reduce Utahns’ energy bills. The average Utah home wastes far too much energy bec...

New Calculator Tool Empowers States To Use Building Energy Codes To Comply With The Clean Power Plan

Posted on May 14, 2015May 18, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

MEDIA CONTACT: William D. Fay; bfay@ase.org; 202-530-2214 CARBON REDUCTIONS A SIGNIFICANT BY-PRODUCT OF EFFECTIVE ENERGY CODES THAT ALSO SAVE BUILDING AND HOMEOWNERS MONEY Washington, D.C., May 12, 2015 – Building energy codes – which have the potential to cut tens of thousands of dollars from the utility bills of home and commercial building owners – also have an interesting by-product: they can reduce hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO2. Today, the Alliance to S...

Time For Action: Why We Need To Say Yes To Building Energy Codes

Posted on December 12, 2014May 20, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

At BCAP’s Annual Energy Codes Stakeholders Meeting in Washington D.C. on December 9th, several key threads emerged from the wealth of energy code knowledge and discourse that unfolded during the day. As we as a community push forward to develop new strategies for better buildings in the coming years, we should also work to deploy the information and policies already at our disposal. For example, a glance at one of BCAP’s recent code adoption maps reveals that many states are still...

Moving Building Technology To The Era Of Zero-Energy Buildings

Posted on November 5, 2014May 18, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Paul Torcellini, principal engineer with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, discusses how we can achieve zero-energy buildings by integrating the cost of energy efficiency into design decisions. This is the first presentation captured from Ecobuilding Review’s 2014 Vision 2020 Sustainability Summit. The original article can be viewed here. For more information on the year-long Vision 2020 project, which aims to establish and tra...

World Energy Engineering Congress (WEEC)

Posted on October 14, 2014May 23, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Earlier this month, under the high exposed ceiling of the Washington Convention Center’s Hall A, thousands of energy professionals from around the globe gathered for the 2014 World Energy Engineering Congress (WEEC), the 37th event of its kind. It was presented by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) and featured over 250 speakers. The WEEC conference is the largest gathering of its kind, representing the culmination of remarkable efforts towards a greener, cleaner future. Ideas and produc...

A Tale of Bright Highs and Dark Lows: The State of Energy Efficiency in the Midwest

Posted on August 11, 2014July 11, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Julia Friedman and Ian Adams, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) The Midwest has a long history of supporting energy efficiency. In 1983, Minnesota was the first state to pilot a statewide energy efficiency program. Since then six Midwestern states have adopted some form of an energy savings target, also known as an Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EEPS).[1] Of these states, in 2011 and 2012, Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois all exceeded their energy efficiency targets.[2] These pol...

Less Than 100 Days To Comment On EPA’s Clean Power Plan

Posted on July 31, 2014July 30, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a historic plan under the Clean Air Act’s Section 111(d) to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the nation’s largest source: existing power plants. Because 71 percent of America’s electricity is consumed by residential and commercial buildings, building energy codes – which have proven to be among the most cost effective measures to reduce carbon emissions – should be a prominent part of the menu of options tha...

High-R Wall Construction Strategies: Reducing Costs And Risk While Increasing Energy Performance

Posted on April 17, 2014August 11, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

by Seul Rhee The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America research program has been a source of innovations in residential building energy performance, durability, quality, affordability and comfort for nearly 20 years. This world-class research program partners with industry (including many of the top U.S. homebuilders) to bring cutting-edge innovations and resources to market. The NAHB Research Center Building America industry team's high-R wall system research focuses primarily on incre...

Applying 2013 Energy Codes

Posted on February 18, 2014June 27, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Looking back at this year's green projects, it seems architects should have placed greater concern on energy code compliance.

The Energy Productivity Innovation Challenge Can Do Better By Codes

Posted on January 15, 2014June 30, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

By Cosimina Panetti If you were going to install a renewable energy system on your house, you would first make sure your house was as energy efficient as possible. At minimum, you would want your house to meet current model energy codes and you would probably go above and beyond the code. If you were the federal government providing incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy systems to states, wouldn’t you expect that states adopt a minimum energy efficiency code? And yet the f...

Code Officials Defeat Proposals To Rollback Historic Efficiency Gains In America’s Model Energy Code

Posted on October 8, 2013August 12, 2016 by Kamaria Greenfield

Atlantic City, N.J., October 8, 2013 – Sound energy policy prevailed as local and state governmental officials rejected dozens of builder-sponsored home efficiency rollback proposals in a three-day marathon meeting convened by the International Code Council (ICC) to develop the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). "Today was a victory for America’s homebuyers," said Bill Fay, Executive Director of the Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC). "By dismissing efforts to roll back ...