State Activity

Rhode Island

At the invitation of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), NEEP and Steve Hughes AIA, guest lectured to a graduate level architecture class on High Performance Building and the role of CHPS and LEED. NEEP presented an overview of CHPS and explained why it is specific to school construction. Mr. Hughes  presented an overview of  LEED.
NEEP facilitated a meeting with the Rhode Island High Performance Schools Working Group to continue to plan outreach activities and to review potential  funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.     

On April 14, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Department of Education, the University of Rhode Island and National Grid, the High Performance Schools Exchange held a free Northeast-CHPS training workshop for contractors, architects and engineers. Over 90 practitioners and school building officials listened to presentations including:

• An overview of Rhode Island’s school construction regulations and CHPS;
• Renewable resources;
• Energy service providers; and
• Construction case studies.

For more information on the workshop including presentations are available online.

On June 23, NEEP partnered with the Rhode Island chapter of the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment; the Rhode Island Chapter of the US Green Building Council; the Healthy Housing Collaborative at the Rhode Island Department of Health; the Rhode Island Chapter of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association; and the Apeiron Institute for Sustainable Living to present a High Performance Buildings Summit. The Summit attended by over 40 individuals from state, local and private organizations across Rhode Island  was a culmination of many months of brainstorming and planning that will be used as a launch pad for paving Rhode Island’s pathway into a healthier, greener, more sustainable future. The mission of the Summit was to give participants the opportunity to forge new alliances and work together to catalyze a sea change where energy efficiency, environmental health and sustainability becomes the standard for all buildings in Rhode Island.

Vermont

On April 7, in conjunction with Efficiency Vermont, the Northeast High Performance Schools Exchange held a workshop to help Vermont schools reduce their energy bills. Over 30 school building officials attended to learn:

• Energy conservation and management planning (how to read and track their utility bills);
• Energy efficiency resources (options available to achieve greater energy savings while protecting the health of building occupants);
• Operations and maintenance planning (information about a Vermont school facilities operating plan).  

The workshop was sponsored by Efficiency Vermont, the Vermont Department of Education, the Vermont Superintendents Association and the High Performance Schools Exchange. For more information on the workshop or to access presentation materials and handouts please visit NEEP's website.

Regional Activity

NEEP facilitated a one day meeting of the High Performance Schools Exchange Regional Working Group. The group discussed the following:

• Update on individual state and program activity;
• Northeast-CHPS for new construction and major renovations version 2.0
• Major changes include update to ASHRAE 90.1.2007, reference to Acoustics and the incorporation of renovations into the criteria;
• NE CHPS for operations and maintenance a guide for making existing buildings high performance;
• Presentation by the US Department of Energy on their new operations and maintenance training toolkit to be released this summer;
• Overview from Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) on the MA Schools Post Occupancy Study (final report to be released this summer). MTC gave an overview of the report along with lessons learned for future school construction; and
• Tour of Nathan Bishop Middle school that is being built using the NE-CHPS criteria.

The 35 participants from around the region included representatives from: the Departments of Education in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust; the Rhode Island Lung Association; the U.S. Department of Energy; the New Buildings Institute; the Rhode Island School of Design; the Jordan Institute; Efficiency Vermont; NSTAR; Cape Light Compact; United Illuminating; and others.  

This quarter, NEEP participated in the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability conference in White Plains, New York. NEEP took part in a panel presentation focused on Clean Energy for Communities. The panel also included the Sustainability Director from the City University of New York and the City of Medford, Massachusetts. NEEP discussed ways communities can make their buildings more energy efficient.

In addition, at the invitation of the US Department of Energy, NEEP took part in an Energy Smart Schools Stakeholders meeting in May. The meeting was attended by stakeholders from across the country to discuss ways to advance energy efficient school construction as well as operations and maintenance.

Northeast CHPS

NEEP distributed the third  draft of Northeast CHPS version 2.0  for new construction and major renovation to the High Performance Schools Regional Technical Review Committee in June. The Final version will be available for distribution this summer.

National Activity

NEEP Releases Model Progressive Energy Codes Policy

NEEP released its Model Progressive Energy Codes Policy (the Policy) at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Market Transformation Symposium in March. The Policy provides guidance to code officials, advocates, utilities and other related stakeholders in creating and/or adopting comprehensive building energy policies that can foster large-scale energy and carbon emissions savings in the built environment across the Northeast. The Policy provides guidance in terms of for state and local code adoption, code compliance and building performance measurement. The Policy provides a set of interconnected recommendations aimed at ensuring the adoption of progressively more efficient building energy codes, improving the rate at which buildings and dwellings comply with the code, and development of the tools needed to measure actual building energy performance as compared to predicted energy savings. Implementing the Policy will help make net-zero energy dwellings and buildings the standard for the construction industry. Please go to http://www.neep.org/energycodes/index.html to view the policy and related fact sheet.

Committee in House of Representatives Reports Out Climate Change Bill with Important Energy Codes Related Language

The Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives reported out the Waxman-Markey bill. This bill is a comprehensive effort to address issues related to climate change and energy - issues significant to the northeastern states. A part of this very weighty bill deals with building energy codes (either International Energy Conservation Code or ASHRAE 90.1). The bill would:

1. Move up the dates for when the national model energy codes  will need to produce 30% and 50% energy savings improvements over beyond the 2006 edition of the IECC (model codes saving 30% within one year of enactment, and 50% savings for homes [by the end of 2014] and commercial buildings [by the end of 2015]),
2. Provide states and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars a year to implement codes(from sales of carbon emission allowances), and billions of dollars a year that they could choose to use for building codes implementation,
3. Make the national model effective in that jurisdiction and/or provide federal enforcement, only if where a state and locality still failed to adopt these codes,
4. Give new tools for states to adopt code requirements for HVAC equipment that is more stringent than federally mandated NAECA standards.

The bill is currently being considered in the Agriculture Committee. House leadership has stated that a version of the bill will be voted on by the full House by Friday, June 26. 

International Code Council (ICC) Continues to Consider Changes to Model Building Codes Adoption Process

The ICC Code Hearings Committee met in May to consider suggestions and concerns expressed at the ICC Town Hall Meeting conducted by the ICC Board of Directors on March 22. NEEP proposed the following changes to the revised code procedures for the Board to consider: 

1. Modification to Final Action Hearing procedures only for member voting for the few proposals that are still required to be deliberated by separate committees; and only where conflicting committee decisions occur; and
2. Postponing Final Action Hearing on referenced standards to the second portion of a code cycle to allow maximum time for newly drafted standards to receive final approval from international standards organizations.

These raise issues with the revised schedule and procedures for the 2015 Code Change cycle that have not been completely addressed at this time. The full text of NEEP’s proposed changes is available online, as is a summary of current ICC Code Hearings procedural changes.

The Department of Energy Continues Work to Develop Energy Code Proposals to Improve Energy Efficiency of the IECC

The Energy Efficient Codes Coalition [EECC] continues to work on further revisions to its initial code change proposals with all parties involved in the DOE’s goal of achieving 30 percent energy efficiency increases in IECC 2012 Edition requirements. NEEP is directly involved in reviewing and revising many of these proposals, plus preparing other proposals that would bring greater efficiencies to existing code issues. The EECC submitted over 30 additional changes to the International Energy Conservation Code Development Committee on or before the June 1 deadline, many with identical code change correlations with the International Residential Code energy provisions in Chapter 11; all targeted toward achieving the DOE goal of 30 percent.

Regional Activity

NEEP Nears Completion of the “Core to Code” Project

NEEP continues to manage the “Core to Code” project, translating the requirements in the New Buildings Institute Core Performance Guide (CPG) into code-enforceable language. This will give states looking to adopt “beyond code” provisions a set of code-enforceable provisions that, if when properly enforced, result in buildings that use less energy than built to the latest minimum model energy code requirements. 

The New Buildings Institute (NBI), in working with NEEP to develop the Core Performance Guide, used computer modeling to determine a mix of requirements that would result in a building that is 15-20 percent more energy efficient than one built to  ASHRAE 90.1-2007 Standard (the most efficient commercial code.) and included those in the Core Performance Guide.  Beyond the data from modeling, there is they use real-world experience justifying the expected savings.  In Massachusetts, several utilities are already using Core Performance Guide CPG as the basis of their new construction programs.  Analyses of buildings constructed to Core Performance Guide CPG specifications reveal substantial energy savings at a negligible price premium.

The project has advanced sufficiently to provide a template for the Board of Building Regulations and Standards as it developed and subsequently adopted its new stretch code for the state in May (See related article). The work is scheduled to be complete in July.

States Activity

Connecticut

The Connecticut Legislature has recently passed a bill that addressed a problem with the adoption of the state’s next commercial energy code.  Currently, statutory provisions reference LEED Silver as a requirement which would require building regulations that would create conflicts with other agencies’ regulations and jurisdiction (DHS, DEP and others).  Instead, the new bill simply requires the Connecticut State Codes & Standards Committee to develop a commercial code that is equivalent to the energy requirements in LEED Silver or other recognized “green” standards. In addition, it also requires adoption of the 2012 edition of the IECC one year after that code is published.

NEEP coordinated a meeting that included American Institute of Architects Connecticut, two key state utilities (Connecticut Light and Power and United Illuminating) and the State Building Inspector to discuss in more detail how the use of a Core Performance-based Code will help address the legislative intent of the statute.

Maine

Maine has appointed a Technical Building Codes Advisory Board, which has been meeting to define the scope of work mandated in Public Law Chapter 699, particularly identifying existing conflicts between current state regulations and their adoption of the ICC Building, Energy, Residential and Existing Buildings model codes. They also are reviewing Maine laws that alter administrative provisions within the model codes, and have not yet selected a training and certification committee. NEEP has been providing codes and standards information to the process, and is seeking direct participation on an Energy Advisory Committee yet to be selected. 

Maryland

The Governor of Maryland has signed a new energy codes bill into law. The legislation clarifies the code adoption process in the state and sets the stage for subsequent efforts to improve compliance with the energy code. The legislation requires the adoption of the latest International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) one year after the IECC is published. It also places a deadline on county adoption of the latest adopted code within 6 months. It also prohibits weakening amendments to the IECC. Since Maryland has chosen to participate in the A.R.R.A. program, it will also have to plan for prompt adoption and enforcement of the 2009 IECC and ASHRAE 90-1-2007. NEEP worked as part of a coalition that included the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE), Sierra Club; Institute for Market Transformation; Responsible Energy Code Alliance (RECA); and the Building Codes Assistance Project (BCAP). In order to achieve this victory NEEP provided policy direction and researched relevant statutes to ensure the submission of a well-crafted legislative proposal.  NEEP also provided important informational backup, including the use of the NBI Core Performance Guide (CPG) as an example of the reasonableness of the legislation.  NEEP pointed out examples of cost-effective, energy efficient buildings built to the specifications of CPG and noted that a commercial code based on CPG will be completed well before the Maryland requirements go into effect.  This information rebut claims that it would be very difficult and not cost effective to adopt the levels of stringency included in the legislation.

New York

Members of the New York City Council have proposed a series of measures designed to improve the building energy performance of commercial buildings in the city.  These measures include:

• Annual benchmarking for all buildings larger than 50,000 square feet;
• Closing a significant code loophole exempting major building renovations from having to meet code requirements;
• Instituting retro-commissioning requirements; performing energy audits and retrofitting building systems every 10 years. 
• Upgrading lighting systems in existing large buildings to meet the new code requirements.

The proposed changes are aimed at tackling the problems of excessive energy use in existing buildings. Typically, code requirements only target new construction.

Rhode Island

The Governor of Rhode Island signed into law a bill that requires automatic updates for the IECC residential code and sets the commercial code at ASHRAE 90.1-2007. This legislation was in response to conditions in the federal stimulus bill. 

Vermont

The Vermont Legislature passed and the Governor signed ACT 0045 which, sets the residential code at the 2009 edition of the IECC, with a provision for automatic updates, and sets the commercial code at ASHRAE 90.1-2007 (with no automatic update).

In addition, Vermont legislators introduced legislation (S.137) recommending time of sale disclosure requirements. The legislative language is partly based on the Model Progressive Building Energy Codes Policy. Unfortunately, opposition from the realtors lobby derailed efforts to pass the legislation.