Setting the Table for Building Decarbonization

Across the NEEP region, eight states, at least eight municipalities, and one county have passed a benchmarking ordinance. The newest state to join this illustrious group holds down the southern border of the NEEP region: West Virginia! What is Benchmarking? The existing building stock accounts for 40 percent of national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy usage. And targeting this sector…

The clean energy transition is here and is accelerating with each day. States and communities are strengthening their carbon reduction goals and taking a serious look at new clean and efficient technologies. To stabilize the climate and meet the growing number of binding carbon commitments, the world will need to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels. This is an opportunity to create new…

NEEP’s cold-climate Air Source Heat Pump (ccASHP) Product List has come a long way in the past few years. Flash back to 2015 (which considering the pandemic year, feels like an eternity ago), and NEEP was just launching an ASHP and smart controls initiative to accelerate adoption of air source heat pumps to meet our long-term market transformation goals by 2025 and 2030. A big piece of this was…

A March 3, 2021 vote by the International Code Council's (ICC) Board of Directors eliminated the governmental member consensus vote - the final phase of the triannual code update process – for future versions of the International Energy Conservation Code. Instead, the ICC will utilize the ANSI standard development process to promulgate the 2024 IECC. ICC maintains that the IECC will continue to…

As Healthy Schools Day approaches, we are reflecting upon the importance of healthy learning environments and the ways in which we create holistic and productive spaces for our youngest community members. Healthy Schools Day is intended to build public awareness and support for the consideration of health in school design and maintenance.  You may be wondering how healthy schools fit into…

For many, our home is the place we find peace, comfort, and relaxation. You sleep, eat, play, and now even work from home. As I write this blog in March 2021, it has been over one year since I started working from home in continued efforts to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. After spending extended periods of time in my home, I became more curious about the link between energy…

States and local jurisdictions have many strategies in their playbooks to meet overall decarbonization goals. One such strategy that is essential to the building sector is strategic electrification or beneficial electrification. Strategic electrification refers to the replacement of building equipment and appliances that would typically run on fossil fuels (such as gas heaters, ovens, boilers,…

2021 is off to the races. Still facing a pandemic, legislative sessions are reopening their doors virtually this year. While states have so far kicked off their legislative sessions on time, they have never done so quite like this. Many, like Connecticut, held chilly swearing in and opening ceremonies outdoors. Maryland began its session without the usual pomp and circumstance, and New Hampshire…

We’ve all been reeling from the effects of COVID-19. Since March of 2020, our personal and professional lives have been altered in ways both big and small. It’s no different within certain sectors of the economy. Nowhere is this more true than the energy efficiency industry. And within the energy efficiency industry, HVAC contractors may be bearing perhaps the greatest brunt of burdens from COVID…

Hello All! This week I joined NEEP as the new Public Policy Manager. I don’t think many people can say they are passionate about energy efficiency, but I am. It started as a passion for regulatory law and environmental justice in law school and has evolved into a career in energy efficiency and finding the path to an equitable, decarbonized grid.  I come to NEEP from the Mid-…