Architects see building performance standards as a business opportunity

In May, owners of New York buildings bigger than 25,000 square feet will file their first reports to comply with an emissions law years in the making. 

Local Law 97 (LL97) is part of the city's Climate Mobilization Act, an ambitious effort reduce cumulative emissions from large buildings by 40% by 2030 and 100% (net zero) by 2050.

Though the law may face hiccups along the way, the writing is on the wall. As of July 2024, six states and approximately 40 cities have implemented or committed to implementing building performance standards (BPS), according to the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT). The reasoning is simple: Buildings are major contributors of carbon emissions for jurisdictions. “It’s the single largest opportunity to achieve their decarbonization and climate goals,” says Anica Landreneau, Assoc. AIA, global sustainable design director at HOK. “In cities, about 50% to 75% of carbon emissions are coming from buildings; in states, it’s around 25%.”

This growing scrutiny presents significant opportunities for architects. Besides the minor role of certifying compliance reports, architects can be the party that spearheads and shepherds building retrofits. The 2024 U.S. Energy and Employment Report found that "the energy efficiency sector supported almost 2.3 million jobs in 2023, adding nearly 75,000 positions from the year before—the most of any sector." 

Jane Sanders, AIA, associate principal and director of sustainability at Henson Architecture, has overseen building retrofits in New York since 2010, soon after the city first mandated energy audits and benchmarking. Regardless of the federal government’s direction, she believes climate action will continue to move forward at the state and local level. “People are inspired to keep the momentum going,” she says. 

Architects' vital role

In Portland, Ore., Harka Architecture has been nudging its clients toward low-carbon architecture and living years before the state announced its building performance standards, which go into effect in 2028, according to IMT. 

“We understand buildings, how they work, and how they work for clients,” says founder and principal architect Patrick Donaldson, AIA. Along with helping owners meet BPS, architects can present “an opportunity to upgrade the functional aspects of their building,” he says. “Now you’re feeding two birds with one hand.”

For clients not sold on decarbonization efforts, Donaldson steers conversations toward resiliency. “Figuring out why sustainability is important to [clients] has been a struggle from the beginning,” he says. “Clients don’t understand why [they] should care about sustainability. Yes, it sounds like a noble cause, but [they want to know], ‘What does that mean for my pocketbook?’” 

He makes a case for resiliency by broaching topics such as “how long can their building be [without] power before it starts getting uncomfortable, and how their backup power systems can be smaller,” he says. “It’s helped clients understand why this is a benefit to them and not just a regulation they need to meet.”

Sanders helps her clients step back and assess their buildings holistically. A façade inspection may turn into a review of roofing, insulation, and window conditions. “We are looking for the things that need to be done next,” she says. “Those decisions need to be made based on … the maintenance cycle of the building, but also on what’s going to have the most impact for the amount of money spent.” Installing windows that exceed compliance requirements may have added benefits in energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and acoustic comfort. Through energy modeling, her firm can determine the individual and combined effect of different upgrades and advise on how to phase the work based on the client’s needs.

Architects can serve as a trusted adviser to owners in aspects beyond design, says Frank Pizzurro, the namesake founder of FP_Architecture_Interiors, in New York. His firm has helped owners review cost estimates, negotiate bids with contractors, and set up work and payment schedules. “We deal with the budget and outline the phases,” he says. “That gives clients a sense of relief that they have a companion and a professional with experience that can do the work for them. We want to be able to tell them that down the road, they’re going to save on energy costs.”

Building up capability

By enhancing their technical services, architecture firms can assume a greater role in BPS compliance. Regardless of whether they build the energy model firsthand, Landreneau says architects should be able to understand it. For example, though an engineering consultant may claim to have factored in a project’s solar shades, an architect needs to confirm their inclusion. “It’s helpful to review [the model] and make sure it aligns with your design intent,” she says. HOK provides staff internal courses on energy model literacy.

Sanders recommends courses offered by Phius even if a firm is not planning to pursue Passive House projects. Courses cover energy modeling, building envelopes, and the impact of energy upgrades on long-term durability, which is "critical for energy savings, but also for air quality and [occupant] health," she notes. 

Firms must conduct their due diligence in paperwork as well. The profession is flush with stories in which value engineering or change orders compromised decarbonization efforts. At HOK, Landreneau has in place a “framework of accountability” to ensure her clients achieve the project performance they expect or need. She co-lead the creation of AIA Document E204-2017, Sustainable Projects Exhibit, which inserts a building performance target and standard as an overlay to the Owner/Architect Agreement. HOK has included energy model summaries in its Division 1, General Requirements, specifications to establish the energy budget. Any consultant or contractor asking for a change order must demonstrate sustained compliance with the energy budget.

This doesn’t mean designs won’t undergo alterations, Landreneau says. In fact, “you can have value-engineering decisions that save money and improve performance—and that should be the expectation that we’re setting with our teams and our clients.”

Project perspective

Public benchmarking reports can prove a valuable resource for firms interested in expanding their BPS services. They can review the numbers of past projects and reach out to former clients if the published metrics fell short of predicted values. “We can reach out and say, ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘Let’s help figure out what’s happening, perhaps with retro-commissioning,’” explains Landreneau, who has done this with past projects in Washington, D.C. The energy use intensity (EUI) of one 2000s LEED Platinum building had, over time, drifted up from its predicted value of 40 kBtus per square foot per year to the 60s. “You can almost see the moment when [energy performance] legislation passed in 2018 that they started tightening things up," she said. 

Ultimately, the project’s EUI returned to the 40s and then kept dropping. Curious, Landreneau reached out to the building owner and asked what happened. “They hired a consultant who did an energy audit,” she says; that included an update to the building’s energy recovery system, a technology that had improved over time. “What that tells me is that the modeling wasn’t inaccurate, and the design was good,” she explains. “This is all about operations and maintenance.”

While reviewing the benchmarking report of a 2020s project that had undergone a deep green retrofit and partial reskin, Landreneau was struck by its high EUI and “terrible” Energy Star rating. She then noticed that the report hadn’t accurately captured the total square footage of the project, which had combined two buildings into one. She reached out to her client, who replied that three different people had reviewed the data and missed that erroneous denominator.

“It comes back to architects looking at the whole picture,” Landreneau says. “That’s a lot of the value that we bring to the table.”

Making the case to clients

Unlike many products and services, building energy retrofits cannot be easily outsourced, Landreneau says: “You can’t pick up an existing building and ship it off overseas for other people to work on it.” Energy efficiency stimulus investments have been shown to produce $2 in energy cost savings for every $1 invested and approximately 18 jobs per $1 million invested, according to the World Economic Forum. New York expects its Climate Mobilization Act to create 26,700 jobs by 2030. 

However, owners can't pay upfront for energy audits and retrofits with goodwill. Several jurisdictions offer Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing or green banks to fund clean energy projects and climate action intiatives. But that doesn't mean owners and developers are aware of these funding sources. 

This provides another outreach opportunity for architects. Landreneau has spoken publicly and privately on this topic with current and prospective clients, developers, and property organizations nationwide. Pizzurro has presented to the New York State Bar Association and accounting firms, reaching audiences that provide legal or financial services to building management companies.

Donaldson plans to start reaching out to commercial building owners and real estate agents about Oregon’s forthcoming EUI standards. “I do laud these requirements because the reality is that you can dangle all the carrots you want, and it’s not until [legislation is enacted] that people will actually move,” he says. 

In New York, Sanders says the imminence of Local Law 97’s fines has spurred owner interest in performance retrofits. “We thought those buildings would be addressing their energy projects sooner, which is showing why the laws are important,” she says. “Until there are actual financial penalties, a lot of buildings are not addressing [the need]. We’re moving into a time where there is going to be more work in this area so it’s important for architects to understand and get involved.”

Personal practice risk

Architects can participate anywhere in the ecosystem of building performance design and retrofits from advising on regulatory changes to underscoring the need to revisit existing building stock. “Architects like new construction,” Landreneau acknowledges, “but multiple studies have shown there is no path to the Paris [Agreement] targets if we don't address existing buildings." 

This includes recommending to clients with buildings in jurisdictions without current BPS to look further downstream. “Even though you’re not required to meet this today,” she says, “we want to be thoughtful about what we design for you, so that [your project] is a compliant facility, holds its value, and is not a stranded or brown asset in the future.”

At some point, Landreneau anticipates the professional liability insurers of design firms will view building performance and resiliency as essential to architects’ standard of care. “I don’t think it’s going to be sufficient to say, ‘I met the code at the time the building was delivered, but I didn’t realize that five years later, I’d be putting my client in a position where they have to pay a fine or renovate the building,’” she says.

The AIA Code of Ethics & Professional Conduct states that architects will consider the impact of climate change on each project and vice versa. “If our charge is health, safety, and welfare,” Landreneau says, “we can’t not focus on this.”

Wanda Lau is a freelance writer and former ARCHITECT magazine editor. She lives outside Chicago. 

Support AIA’s Climate Action Goals:  AIA 2030 Commitment and A&D Materials Pledge Reporting Underway
As part of AIA’s ongoing robust commitment to strategic plan goals for climate action, AIA’s pledge programs (AIA 2030 Commitment and A&D Materials Pledge) offer a call to action for AIA members to directly engage in tracking firm progress towards pledge targets, while improving design practices.  This enables AIA to advocate and communicate the impact the architecture profession is making toward achieving a zero carbon, equitable, healthy, and resilient built environment. Deadlines for reporting are March 31 for the 2030 Commitment and May 31 for the Materials Pledge. 

AIA 2030 Commitment and Materials Pledge Open Office Hours offer education and technical assistance to firms in their reporting journey.  AIA’s Climate Action Pledge Programs - YouTube features new video testimonials on the value of pledge participation for firms, and recorded help sessions and webinars on a variety of support and educational topics.

Questions?  Email AIA at  2030committment@aia.org and materials@aia.org.