New federal boosts to energy codes aim to accelerate climate progress

The Biden administration has bankrolled numerous programs meant to help the country get closer to its climate goals: significant investments in electric vehicles, new infrastructure, a raft of railroad improvements, and even funding for clean hydrogen hubs. 

But for architects, a lesser-appreciated part of the Inflation Reduction Act seeks to spend hundreds of millions changing the rules under which they design buildings. 

Announced at the end of last year, the Biden-Harris administration’s $530 million, one-time commitment to updating building codes may appear like one of the wonkier, more in-the-weeds aspects of the federal government’s recent wave of climate spending and investment. However, industry veterans and experts see it as a much-needed boost. 

“This will help a lot of states overcome barriers,” says Daniel Bresette, president of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Previously, the Department of Energy annual budget for code assistance was roughly $50 million a year. 

To access the funds, states and municipalities must apply for technical assistance grants for adopting and implementing new building codes meant to improve energy efficiency and slash emissions, including zero energy codes and improved building performance standards. 

This funding won’t apply to projects that study the impact of codes or research; rather, it’s geared towards implementation. Training and hiring new code enforcement officials, educating local stakeholders such as contractors and developers, and helping to communicate the code shift to the greater public all fall under the program’s purview. It applies to standard building codes, as well as building performance standards, performance-based codes and stretch codes, and voluntary sets of more strict regulations municipalities can choose to adopt. 

“There's absolute potential,” says Amy Boyce, senior director of building and energy performance at the Institute for Market Transformation. “In terms of climate, and specifically in terms of buildings and how they relate to the climate with energy codes, this is a once-in-a-lifetime funding opportunity. This is not going to happen again in any of our professional careers.”

Code change has already been a powerful tool for climate action: homes built to contemporary standards are 40% more energy efficient than those built 15 years ago, according to Biden administration calculations. The White House believes much more is possible; if every state adopted the latest model energy codes, that would eliminate 2 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions over 30 years, the same as taking 445 million gas-powered cars off the road.

The challenge in meeting that potential, and the reason why the input and advocacy of architects at a local and state level may be so crucial in coming months, is that the decentralized building code system in the United States depends on local and state-level decisions. 

Whereas the nations of the European Union, for instance, agreed on bloc-wide building performance standards, which simplifies construction planning and creates a larger market for standards-aligned materials and building supplies, the U.S. relies on a patchwork system. Many architects have taken up the advocacy mantle around issues such as zoning, affordability, and density, as well as the current push to make single-stair building legal.

“Design is not going to solve the problem,” says Anthony Brower, AIA, global leader of Gensler's Climate Action & Sustainability practice. “If you really want to make an impact in the industry, you get in bed with policymakers and give them the information they need to write stronger codes, because 10% better on every single project that we touch is vastly more impactful.”

That’s where local architects focused on improving the emissions impact of the built environment can get engaged, Boyce says. Local industry boards, legislatures and municipal governments often decide when and how to update codes, efforts that have traditionally gone under the radar. And it’s easier for elected officials to dismiss interest groups, especially environmental groups, as being singularly focused on their issues instead of weighing the intricate nature of such shifts to process and procedure. There is extensive opportunity for architects to lend their expertise, share lessons learned from their own energy benchmarking, and get involved. 

“Having a practitioner weigh in, especially if they can show that certain changes aren’t hard and already have been done in the area without much difficulty, can have a lot of sway,” she says. “There are a lot of people who will dismiss something if it comes from a climate group but see a practitioner as being more neutral.”

Having a code to point to also greatly influences client decisions, says Bower. Many clients will start the design process with net zero in mind, but cost increases, especially during the current environment of higher interest rates and material inflation, can push them to revert to code minimum. Net zero buildings represent important examples of what’s possible and can be held up as beacons, but they represent a sliver of what currently is being built.

“The public doesn't often see a lot of what we do behind the scenes on projects,” says Bower. “It's up to us to interpret the code.” 

When large organizations like the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) put out model codes, it doesn’t impact any building until localities make the change. And federal efforts to mandate code changes, including a current Biden administration effort to link federal loan approval on new homes to adhere to newer building codes, encounters political and building-industry pushback.

While some cities have enacted very forward-looking, progressive codes–such as Local Law 97 in New York City, or Boston’s Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO)–many rely on standardized rules from larger, slower-moving, industry-friendly code-writing groups such as the International Code Council, creating a vast gulf (estimates from FEMA suggest 10 of the 14 million U.S. buildings set to be built between 2016 and 2040 will follow these codes). The Department of Energy found that just five states have up to date 2021 residential codes, while 10 have the latest commercial building codes. 

Some states and localities simply choose to be left behind and allow significantly less efficient construction; 24 states have pre-2010 residential codes, 12 have pre-2010 commercial codes, and eight don’t have codes at all and leave regulation to cities and towns. But that just means change can be much more consequential: federal analysis found that updating Arizona’s codes would save $23 billion in energy costs over 30 years, or $8,600 per household.

“The biggest hurdle towards getting more efficient energy codes in place is the fact that it's all based on the whims of local power,” says Boyce. It also doesn’t help that the American issue of pre-emption – states, often red, restricting what kinds of legislation (often proposed by progressive legislators) can be enacted at a local level – can hamper some local efforts at reform.

Boyce believes the greatest impact might be getting states and localities to adopt more innovative codes, as well as stretch codes, which ramp up the basic elements of energy efficiency, such as insulation, fenestration, and renewable power-ready construction. Getting a few million more dollars to make that leap, which can help update laws, train staff, and provide outreach to the design community, can make a big difference. There had been some efforts before the IRA to update codes, including the 2022 Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency proposal, which ultimately didn’t pass. Ideally, giving local governments support to make the shift will make the transition easier and less controversial. 

Boyce’s organization, the Institute for Market Transformation, helped design and launch the Washington, D.C. Building Innovation Hub, a resource that provides information about improved building standards in the nation’s capital, as well as career and resource guides to help recruit contractors, improve participation in the emerging green building economy, and educate real estate professionals about compliance and energy savings.

“There’s a genuine adoption and enforcement challenge,” says Bresette. “You have to retrain people; code officials need to really understand what the code is and enforce it. There’s the technology of codes. But the magic of codes is the human element. That’s the workhorse element of it.”