Building a Clean Buildings Sector

In May 2021, as part of a broad package of initiatives to improve America’s buildings, the Biden administration announced the launch of an interagency effort to develop building performance standards (BPS) for federal government buildings. These standards will set metrics and targets to reduce emissions from these buildings in order to help reach the administration’s carbon emissions reduction goals.

Resources for the Future hosted a conversation among a panel of experts to discuss insights and challenges that could help inform the development of BPS policy at the federal level.

A growing number of cities and states are adopting BPS policies to reduce energy use and emissions from the buildings sector within their jurisdictions. The panel featured a city representative who is currently administering BPS policies, along with other NGO and research experts who are instrumental in the thinking around BPS policy design. Together, the group highlighted lessons from past experience and insights that could help inform this BPS policy development process at the federal level.

Speakers

• Katie Bergfeld, DC Department of Energy & Environment
• Veronique Bugnion, ClearlyEnergy and Johns Hopkins University
• Kathryne Cleary, Resources for the Future
• Cindy Jacobs, US Environmental Protection Agency
• Danielle Spiegel-Feld, New York University School of Law
• Karen Palmer, Resources for the Future (moderator)