Category: Energy Codes and Policy
Key Takeaways From Recent IECC Code Development Hearings
Post / June 10, 2019
Code officials, architects, builders, engineers and energy conservation professionals gathered last month in Albuquerque for the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)’s Committee Action Hearings. The proceedings were the first step in a lengthy stakeholder process to update the 2021 IECC,...
Efficiency and Carbon Reduction Goals Converge at the Built Environment
Post / April 17, 2019
With mounting evidence that immediate and aggressive action is necessary to address climate change, combined with a lack of leadership on this issue by the federal government, state and local governments are taking meaningful actions to adopt, honor, and meet...
A Small Window of Opportunity to Make Huge Gains in Climate Action
Post / March 19, 2019
Cities face unrelenting demands on policy priorities. Affordable housing, transportation, economic development, climate action, and other pressing issues compete for limited resources and funds. Now is a moment in time, however, when the opportunity to make significant progress toward carbon...
2019 is the Year of Energy Codes
Post / January 14, 2019
If there’s a defining theme for the building sector in 2019, it’s energy codes. Actions to update the rules that cities and states set to determine how effectively new residential and commercial buildings use energy are progressing on several fronts...
New York Invests in Energy-Saving Strategies to Meet Climate Action Goals
Post / January 4, 2019
New York has emerged as a shining star in local energy policy with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement early last year of an ambitious energy efficiency target to reduce energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs (British thermal units) by...
Four States Make Strides on Advancing Energy Codes
Post / December 5, 2018
Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island come out on top in the 2018 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard released this fall. The three states ranked high on six categories including utility programs, transportation, building energy codes, combined heat and power, state initiative and...
Ithaca Leads in New York for Net Zero Energy Building Standards
Post / November 29, 2018
The energy use in buildings across the town and city of Ithaca is responsible for nearly 75% of carbon emissions, according to the local sustainability officials. To reduce its carbon footprint, the two jurisdictions are taking important steps to increase...
Linking Legends
Post / July 20, 2018 / Policy
John Wilson accepting the Jeffrey Johnson Award John Wilson, former Board President of New Buildings Institute, has been awarded the 2018 Jeffrey A. Johnson Award for Excellence in the Advancement Of Building Energy Codes. This award is named in honor...
Getting to 50 and Back Again
Post / May 30, 2018
2005 was a tumultuous year and it was in those challenging times that I got the call that Jeff Johnson was gone – a mountain bike accident in the Columbia River Gorge. I knew Jeff as the Executive Director of...
NBI’s Legacy of Code Advocacy Lives On
Post / March 8, 2018 / Energy Codes
New Buildings Institute (NBI) has played an active and influential role in building energy codes since the day its doors opened in 1997. Jeff Johnson, one of its first executive directors, was an ardent codes advocate with a long track...