This week, New Buildings Institute (NBI) submitted code change proposals to the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) residential and commercial development committees. These proposals have the potential to drastically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector and help...
As we witness the consequences of rapid, widespread and intensifying climate change, our students face the prospect of worsening impacts in the world they will inherit. Students are demanding a more hopeful and sustainable future and are also asking for...
We recognize there are structural injustices and inequities in our systems and climate work. NBI is committed to the journey necessary to ensure every member of our society has equal access to and benefits from zero energy and zero carbon....
The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (the Sixth Assessment Report) sounded an alarm about the urgent need to transition to net zero carbon emissions to avoid global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. With buildings representing...
In many parts of the United States, navigating the building permits required for distributed energy resources such as solar, storage, and electric vehicles (EVs) can be a daunting process. Many communities have burdensome requirements for installing such technologies and/or lack...
Thirty states and the District of Columbia have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), policies that require or set goals for all energy supply to be renewable by a chosen date mostly within the next two decades. The Biden Administration earlier...
This blog was originally published on gettingtozeroforum.org on July 9, 2021. NBI is excited to welcome 20 students from college campuses across the United States and Canada to the inaugural cohort of the Next Gen program. Next Gen was designed...
With buildings currently representing 39% of U.S. carbon emissions from operational and embodied sources, jurisdictions look toward advanced building codes and policies as critical and urgent strategies for meeting their climate goals. Despite overwhelming support from public bodies, recent efforts...
Third-party rating systems like LEED have put pressure on building product manufacturers to disclose details about the environmental impacts of their products. In just the past 16 months alone, the environmental product declarations (EPDs) for concrete within the Embodied Carbon...
Clothes washer, shower, kitchen sink. These are the places where hot water lives. In fact, water heating accounts for a large share of energy use in buildings—up to 32% in single-family and multifamily homes. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy...
