Building Decarbonization Reading Round-Up

“Building Back Better” Buildings

Lauren Urbanek & Khalil Shahyd | Natural Resources Defense Council Expert Blog | April 1, 2021

In this blog post, Lauren Urbanek and Khalil Shayhd outline some of the key features of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, which he debuted in Pittsburgh in late March. 

The $2 trillion plan includes infrastructure investments that will help combat the climate crisis, address racial inequity, and speed up the economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, the plan calls for “affordable, resilient, accessible, energy efficient, and electrified housing units” with funds to match the scale of the effort. The plan addresses both new construction and existing buildings and homes.

The plan, while ambitious and in line with Green Building United’s ongoing efforts to explore the opportunities and barriers for healthy home repairs and equitable electrification, still needs Congress to negotiate details with the Administration and pass the bill.

Transitioning away from fossil fuels means transitioning away from housing injustice

Editorial Board | Philadelphia Inquirer | April 9, 2021 

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board outlines clearly and succinctly the opportunity for climate action to address the persistent challenge of quality housing.  

The vast majority of Philadelphia’s carbon emissions – 75 percent – are a result of buildings and the energy they use. Many thousands of homes in Philadelphia are in a state of disrepair making them more difficult and expensive to heat and cool. Relatedly, Philadelphians are among the most energy burdened in the county, meaning they spend a high percentage of their household income on energy costs. Climate actions like weatherizing and electrifying homes serve the dual purpose of alleviating the burden of safe and healthy homes for Philadelphians while lowering emissions.

Most importantly, many of the climate interventions that Philadelphians are pursuing now are both insufficient – rooftop solar on every home would not achieve our climate goals – and inaccessible, in that only affluent homeowners can afford to make them. It is essential that funds from the American Rescue Plan and the potential revenues from the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative be focused on ensuring that low income Philadelphians are prioritized in the transition to affordable, efficient, healthy, and climate-resilient homes.

US building codes need a major retrofit to meet climate goals and spare consumers

Sara Baldwin | Utility Dive | April 7, 2021 

In this opinion piece, Sara Baldwin, the electrification policy director at Energy Innovation,  covers both the importance of building codes in achieving climate goals, cost savings, and health benefits as well as how the code development process falls short of achieving the full potential of these outcomes.

Recently, the International Codes Council (ICC), the nonprofit entity that facilitates the code development process, delivered a major blow to the process as we know it. Government voters who overwhelmingly voted to approve provisions in line with climate action goals including all-electric building requirements saw some of their measures overturned alongside a change to the development process that limits their level of participation in the future.

Baldwin uses this development to propose some broad-based solutions to improve the code development process and bring building codes into alignment with climate goals. She suggests starting a new code development process with building decarbonization as an explicit goal with New Building Institute’s Building Decarbonization Code as a starting point for discussion. What’s more, she advocates for increased transparency and oversight in code development, a strong national appliance standard, electrification programs with an emphasis on equity and resilience, and increasing building code trainings.