BPS Library

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are developing a series of technical briefs supporting national, state, and local initiatives to update and advance building energy codes. This technical brief presents recommendations for changes that may be incorporated into energy codes to facilitate future compliance with the building performance standard (BPS) policies that a newly constructed building has to meet once it is occupied. It provides background on the basis and benefits of the proposed changes and model code language that can be inserted into ASHRAE Standard 90.1 or adapted into other energy codes.

This DOE guide offers tips on framing the energy data access discussion, understanding major stakeholders, identifying key issues, determining the forum for stakeholder engagement, and describing key elements of the engagement process

This is a template for cities and states to develop building performance standards. It provides structural foundation that can be tailored to individual jurisdictions.

This document examines lessons from carbon policy and their applicability to building performance standards. Discusses policy in DC, NYC, and Tokyo. This report assesses the various tradeoffs and challenges of designing building performance standards (BPS) in order to facilitate compliance and promote cost-effectiveness.

Provides an overview of building performance standards and offers information on key decision points to consider when designing a BPS.

Describes the varied roles that state and local decisions makers have in establishing existing building policies and opportunities to coordinate across jurisdictions.

This guide is intended to provide technical basis and resources to policymakers, building owners, facility managers, design professionals and ASHRAE members when developing and implementing a Building Performance Standard (BPS). The guide focuses on larger building types and scope of BPS as developed by leading U.S. cities and states. The guide covers BPS aimed toward reducing building operating energy use and resulting emissions.

This report considers the options for implementing a building performance standard across a broader scope of buildings and geography than a single city or state: federally owned or leased buildings, which comprise 1 billion square feet across the country.

This document will be of most immediate use to policymakers that are preparing to implement or are already implementing a BPS policy. In addition to specific recommendations, the guide presents a broad overview of the many aspects of implementing a BPS and thus is a valuable resource for policy planning as well as developing appropriations requests.

For cities exploring building performance standards, a high-performance building hub provides critical guidance, technical assistance, or access to available incentives to building owners, designers, contractors, and operators. This brief for policymakers explores why a city should consider offering a high-performance hub and outlines key steps in figuring out how to set one up.

This ACEEE webpage discusses approaches for facilitating statewide energy data access and the roles and opportunities for different stakeholders, including residents, multifamily building owners, businesses, utilities, and regulators. 

Describes the critical role that utilities play in providing whole-building energy consumption data to enable compliance with benchmarking and transparency and BPS polices.

This white paper provides information on the implications of different metrics including framework for guiding choice of metrics for BPS, a detailed description of metrics, and supporting analysis and discussion.

This 13-page document outlines EPA's recommendations for metrics and normalization methods for use in state and local building performance standards (BPS). Contents include: 1. Recommended metrics for use in a BPS; 2. Recommended method for normalizing site EUI in a BPS; 3. EPA's next steps; 4. An alternative normalization approach for buildings eligible to receive a 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score.

Provides information about benchmarking and transparency policies, describes key considerations for success, and demonstrates how government leaders have used benchmarking to help enact a BPS.