Buildings Committee

Buildings Committee Meetings and Webinars

Upcoming:

Please stay tuned for more information. 

Past:

June 10, 2024, 2:30 - 4:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Webinar: A Discussion of DOE’s National Building Decarbonization Blueprint, State Decarbonization Plans, and Opportunities for Collaboration
The NASEO Buildings Committee hosted a conversation between State Energy Office Directors of Michigan, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Carolyn Snyder, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Buildings and Industry, on the recently released DOE report, “Decarbonizing the U.S. Economy by 2050: A National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector”. The Blueprint serves as a guiding framework for coordinated federal actions, including collaboration with state and local entities, to meet ambitious short- and long-term goals of decarbonizing the buildings sector while simultaneously unlocking significant energy cost savings, public health benefits, and clean energy jobs. 

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January 23, 2024, 3:00-4:30 PM ET - NASEO Webinar: Ensuring Access to Whole Building Energy Data for Programs, Policies, and Incentives
A growing slate of existing building programs, policies, and incentives rest on access to whole-building energy data, including those being administered by states. This webinar expanded on the issues that arise when owners of multi-family and multi-tenant commercial buildings lack access to this data; the types of programs, policies, and incentives that utilize or may utilize this data; best practices and resources to look to related to data provision; and the roles that states can play in ensuring access. The data can enable building owners to provide information required to comply with benchmarking laws, building performance standards laws, and emission disclosure laws for corporate entities; to benchmark on a voluntary basis or meet investor demands for disclosure from publicly traded companies; and to access incentives for energy efficiency projects through the expanded 179D tax deduction, HUD Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, and the DOE Home Efficiency Rebates program. Additionally, access to this data may support states in designing and implementing existing building focused initiatives under the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program.

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January 11, 2024, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET NASEO Webinar: The FY23 Federal Emergency Management Agency's Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program
The FY23 Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) Program includes a new Building Code Plus-Up set aside that provides additional federal funding to advance life safety and energy codes for hazard mitigation and increased building resilience. As potential partners or subapplicants for this non-competitive state funding allocation under BRIC and as entities that often oversee building code development, adoption, and implementation activities, State Energy Offices gleaned information and application best practices through presentations from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Office of Energy Programs, the FEMA BRIC Technical Team, and the International Code Council on the eligible activities supported through the competitive and non-competitive BRIC funding opportunities. States must submit their applications for state allocations and Plus-Up funds by February 29, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. ET. 

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September 19, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Low-Embodied Carbon and Energy Efficient Residential Construction

This NASEO Buildings Committee Meeting featured presentations from the U.S. Green Building Council, the Cellulose Insulation Manufacturers Association, and the Vinyl Siding Institute on the sustainability of commercially available insulation, cladding, and other construction materials for residential energy efficiency. These presentations provided background for discussions of environmental product declarations (EPDs), life cycle analysis (LCA) software to calculate embodied carbon, and linkages to “buy-clean” procurement policies.

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August 23, 2023, 4:00 – 5:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on the Pacific Northwest National Lab Building Energy Codes Technical Assistance Network

This NASEO Buildings Committee meeting provided an overview of the Building Energy Codes Technical Assistance Network, offered in coordination between the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) and the Regional Energy Efficiency Organizations (REEOs). The Technical Assistance Network, along with the National Energy Code Collaborative, proactively engages state and local jurisdictions on adopting and implementing advanced energy codes. This presentation introduced key PNNL staff and anticipated resources, soliciting attendee feedback on how these resources might support states and their building energy code goals. 

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August 3, 2023, 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on State-Led Building Clean Energy Target Adoption     

This NASEO Buildings Committee meeting featured a discussion on the momentum propelling more state-led efforts to advance the performance of existing buildings and their varied approaches, ranging from statewide lead-by-example energy improvement programs targeting publicly owned buildings to meaningful engagement with local governments to develop climate and energy goals and implementation plans for their buildings sector. This meeting featured perspectives from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Texas State Energy Conservation Office, and their respective program partners on improving the existing building stock, as well as a brief overview on federal technical assistance offerings from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

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July 31, 2023, 2:00 - 3:00 PM ET - NASEO Briefing on Inflation Reduction Act Tax Incentives

NASEO hosted a briefing on the implications of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax incentives for commercial real estate, featuring a presentation from Duane Desiderio of the Real Estate Roundtable, followed by a question and answer session for participating State, Territory, and Affiliate members. The Real Estate Round table has created fact sheets on the IRA tax incentives which are updated as the Internal Revenue Service releases additional information. The fact sheets can be found on the Real Estate Roundtable website. 

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June 29, 2023, 4:00-5:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Low-GWP Refrigerants

The June NASEO Buildings Committee call featured presentations from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI); Carrier; and Johnson Controls Inc. that shared perspectives on managing fugitive emissions and meeting state/local climate goals by using low-GWP refrigerants in heat pumps and other cooling technologies. The presentations also delved into the state policy interventions necessary to safely enforce low-GWP refrigerant through building codes. 

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April 12, 2023, 4:00-5:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call - U.S. DOE Building Energy Code Notice of Intent (States Only)

This states-only meeting of the NASEO Buildings Committee provided an overview of the recently published U.S. Department of Energy Notice of Intent to release $950 million of funding on a competitive basis for building energy codes over multiple years. The Technical Assistance for the Adoption of the Latest and Zero Building Energy Codes or Standards Request for Information (RFI) was published on Friday March 31, 2023. The meeting gathered state input to inform NASEO’s response to the RFI associated with this funding. Responses to the RFI are due to DOE on April 26, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. ET. 

March 22, 2023, 4:00-5:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Member Priorities and Updates

The March NASEO Buildings Committee call provided forum for State and Affiliate members to share recent buildings-related priorities and updates, which included brief updates on new resources and interest areas from the NASEO Buildings Program and polling to discuss topics of interest for upcoming NASEO Buildings Committee Calls.

February 21, 2023, 4:00-5:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Energy Efficiency Improvements for Commercial Buildings

The February NASEO Buildings Committee kicked off a series of quarterly presentations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on program design considerations, tools, and available resources for states seeking to increase the energy efficiency of commercial buildings. The meeting featured presentations from Katy Hatcher and Brendan Hall from the Public Sector Program at EPA and Billierae Engelman, Operations Specialist at DOE; in addition to a presentation from Emily Salzberg and Liz Reichart from Washington State on their experience implementing a statewide building performance standard. 

December 1, 2022, 3:00-4:00 PM ET - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on 2024 Energy Code

The NASEO Buildings Committee held a meeting focused on the development of the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code. The meeting addressed the development process, explained how states could participate in the public comment period (comments due December 16, 2022), and addressed how the changes proposed to the code so far may impact the efficiency of the final 2024 energy code. This meeting was moderated by Robin Yochum, NASEO Buildings Committee Co-Chair and Energy Program Manager of the Nevada Governor's Office of Energy, and featured presentations from Ian Finlayson, Deputy Manager of Energy Efficiency at Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources; Kim Cheslak, Director of Codes at New Buildings Institute; and Kristopher Stenger, Director of Energy Programs at International Code Council.

November 10, 2021 - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Understanding the Pending Hope for Homes and Zero Emissions Homes Programs – $12.5 Billion for State Implementation Residential Efficiency
NASEO’s Buildings Committee held a members-only meeting to provide planning details on two residential energy efficiency and beneficial electrification training and rebate programs – Hope for Homes (H4H) and Zero Emissions Homes (ZEEH). These $12.5 billion programs were part of a U.S. House reconciliation bill. State Energy Offices would be directly responsible for about half of this amount which would be provided through an SEP formula mechanism. NASEO staff and residential efficiency expert Kara Saul Rinaldi, President, AnnDyl Policy Group, provided details on the statutory language guiding H4H and ZEEH and considerations for both the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the State Energy Offices in planning for their implementations. If you are interested in reviewing the November 3, 2021, version of the legislation, the H4H begins on page 379, Subtitle D—Energy, Part 1—Residential Energy Efficiency and Electrification Rebates, Sec. 30411 Home Energy Performance-Based, Whole-House rebates and Training Grants and is paired with Sec. 30412 the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program.

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August 17, 2021 - NASEO Buildings Committee Call on Allowable Uses of American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) Funding for K-12 Schools Retrofits
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided nearly $122 billion to states and schools to support reopening of K-12 schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). According to the U.S. Green Building Council, this ARPA funding brings the total funding allocated to $176 billion in emergency funding for K-12 schools to respond to COVID-19. Since the Act was passed in March 2021, many states had questions about how the funds can be utilized, and if energy efficiency projects would be eligible for funding. During this half day webinar, NASEO partners provided an update to participating State Energy Offices on the allowable uses of ESSER funding, including through public private partnerships such as Energy Savings Performance Contracts.

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NASEO Slides

DOE Slides

Center for Green Schools Slides

Additional K-12 Schools Resources:

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for State and Territory Energy Offices

U.S. Department of Energy – Efficient Healthy Schools

American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy- “With Schools Set to Reopen, U.S. Needs to Help Them Clean the Air and Save Energy”

U.S. GAO. School Districts Frequently Identified Multiple Building Systems Needing Updates or Replacement, June 2020