Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

The Northeast Mid-Atlantic region is a leader in energy efficiency and has achieved substantial energy savings over the last several decades. Innovations in lighting, HVAC, and air sealing have meant homes continue to become more efficient. But why aren’t we seeing electricity bills shrink across the board? Well, there’s one category of home energy users, namely Business and Consumer…

Back to school? Yes please! I want to go back to school. Really I do. I’m not talking about masters' degrees or professional development courses. I want to go back to middle or high school. Fried lunches are being replaced with fresh vegetables! I never thought this would be something that would come out of my mouth.  Not that school was bad – it’s more that I have had enough algebra…

Sweetums seems much less scary now that I’ve met the monster called mold. When I was a little girl, I was convinced that a monster lived in my basement. I was afraid to go downstairs alone in the morning — this terrifyingly vivid image of the dining room floor opening up, and the Muppets ogre Sweetums climbing out. Decades later as a first-time homeowner, I’ve learned that monsters are real…

George Twigg of Efficiency Vermont NEEP’s guest-blogger George Twigg, Director of Public Affairs at EfficiencyVermont shares his perspective on stretch code implementation in Vermont and the importance of providing certainty and consistency for arriving at stakeholder consensus. As noted by NEEP in its July issue of Highlights, Vermont became the latest state to adopt a “stretch code” for…

Before reading this. Around NEEP HQ, we talk a lot about efficiency as it relates to energy, but what about efficiency related to other prevalent areas of our modern lives? This Staff-Hacks post dives down to the bottom of office efficiency where readers will ideally surface with some sand in hand! I'm a big fan of life hacks, or shortcuts and systems that make life a lot better with less…

Check out our In Focus piece from our July/August edition of Highlights, our public policy newsletter! Natalie has some great discussion about the exciting policy developments in Delaware and Maine. The end of the legislative session brought cliff hangers for major energy efficiency bills in two states- one a stunning bipartisan rebuke of Maine's Governor LePage with passage of an omnibus…

As of July 9, the Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS) voted to approve the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and ASHRAE 90.1-2010, with non-weakening amendments. The Board had previously voted for a one year concurrency period where either the 2009 or 2012 IECC can be used. Starting July 2014, 2012 IECC for residential and ASHRAE 90.1-2010…

Multifamily: A Nut Hard to Crack Tung Huynh, NEEP's Public Policy Intern Multifamily housing represents an important sector with large untapped energy savings potential. Cost-effective energy efficiency upgrades can reduce energy use by 15-30% in buildings with five or more residential units, translating to almost $3.4 billion in annual utility bill savings for the multifamily sector…

With efficiency programs across the region maturing, states and program administrators are striving to touch more customers and tackle challenging sectors such as the multifamily housing market. As part of our ongoing initiative on multifamily housing, NEEP recently hosted a workshop on Challenges and Opportunities in the Multifamily Market in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regions. The day-…

NEEP is pleased to welcome a trio of new faces to our Public Policy and EM&V Teams! While Kevin Rose is an accomplished recent graduate, Serafina Zeringo and Xiao are joining us as interns as they pursue studies in environmental policy. Kevin Rose Kevin Rose is the Building Energy Technical Associate, where he provides technical guidance to NEEP’s Building Codes team and helps to promote…