Sustainable Building Codes for Existing Buildings

Washington State adopted ASHRAE 100 for buildings over 50,000 sf. This starts with an audit for buildings over a typology-specific EUI threshold. Then the building owner needs to implement all ‘cost-effective’ retrofits, which is likely to be CxA for many buildings all the way to lighting, mechanical or potentially envelope upgrades. It’s called the Clean Buildings law and is being run by the WA Dept of Commerce. The rules were written in 2019-2020. Upgrades in the next few years will have financial incentives from the state, and beyond that it just needs to get done. It’s not a code, but will trigger the code in some cases. https://www.commerce.wa.gov/growing-the-economy/energy/buildings/ Seattle has a benchmarking and retrofit ordinance as well. https://www.seattle.gov/environment/climate-change/buildings-and-energy/energy-benchmarking Codes are challenging and were not chosen for the path for WA because some people (especially Architects) are great at finding ways to not meet the thresholds that require energy code upgrades. I could imagine graduated codes that require increasingly more efficiency with increased investment, but I haven’t seen anything heading in that direction. The 2021 WA energy code DRAFT includes some required upgrades to heat pumps, but has many, many exceptions. I’m very interested in what you uncover, Keith. =Kjell From: Keith

This is interesting and semi-timely, Keith. I'm sitting on a sub-working group of and ASHRAE task force that is looking at this very topic. Our sub-group's charge was to research and identify codes and ordinances that specifically address decarbonization. I'll touch base with the chair of our sub-group to inquire as to whether or not we can share that data collection. 

My experience is there is a lot of squirming when it comes to retrofitting existing buildings and setting aggressive targets. Predominant sentiment is there are too many variables to work around for folks to feel comfortable requiring performance based targets and 'we'll get what we can get' winds up being the consensus. The end result is typically lackluster, but it doesn't have to be. The status quo is performance based contracting that only addresses basic replacement requirements. We can and must do better. IECC has some guidance, but it is focused on addition or replacement, which leaves a lot on the table. https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IECC2015/chapter-5-ce-existing-buildings?site_type=public Most existing building guidance is written in a way to limit scope. Any contractor can come in and change lights without triggering a more comprehensive project. But every professional on this listserv knows how to leverage an integrated approach toward deep savings. RMI did a lot of work on this in the last economic downturn, and it's still relevant. To summarize 1. Look for triggers in the lifecycle of buildings, such as * Adaptive Reuse, Market Repositioning or Modernization * Roof, Window or other Major Envelope work * Deferred Maintenance / Replacement for HVAC and Similar Equipment * Code-Required Updates * New Acquisition and Refinancing Announcements of Utility Rate Hikes or other Related News * Major Occupancy Change * Significant Comfort or Maintenance Issues * Owner-Initiated Energy Management Planning 2. Apply a holistic, design based performance approach 3. Look beyond the typical retrofit time horizon 4. Leverage financing opportunities (incentives, 179d, grants etc) 5. Look at co-benefits, NEBs, VBECs. https://rmi.org/insight/how-to-calculate-and-present-deep-retrofit-value-a-guide-for-owner-occupants-executive-summary/ My recommendation is to define scope of work similar to ADA where you need to bring everything up to snuff if the cost of the project is over a certain amount. Its imperfect, but the goal is to switch from a widget based approach to a performance based approach. Think about treating a project as 'new construction' and has to comply via performance based approach if it touches 2 of 4 systems (envelope, lighting, HVAC, controls). We did this for State of WI facilities https://doa.wi.gov/DFDM_Documents/MasterSpecs/Sustainability/DFDM%20Sustainability%20Guidelines%20for%20Capital%20Projects%20-%20V2%20-%20Sept%202020.pdf Lead with some inspiring examples of renovations that embody this vision, some of my favorite go-to's 1. Empire State Building 2. https://www.aia.org/showcases/12426-the-edith-green

A downside to setting construction cost as the trigger is owners not doing anything rather than hit the must do spending limit. No well-intentioned mandates are perfect, but I would always owners do something rather than nothing. Jean Carroon, FAIA, LEED Fellow Principal - Design, Preservation and Sustainability Goody Clancy 617 850 6651 (direct) 617 285 5936 (mobile) Jean.carroon@goodyclancy.com [Goody Clancy] Building reuse is climate action! - Lori Ferriss

...continued: Lead with some inspiring examples of renovations that embody this vision, some of my favorite go-to's 1. Empire State Building 2. https://www.aia.org/showcases/12426-the-edith-green

Hi Keith, Kjell already mentioned the Washington State Clean Buildings Perfromance Standard. To add to that, I've put a PDF copy of the WA ammended ASHRAE Standard 100 in the file link. Another good resource is New York city with their Local Law 32 (2018) energy efficiency requirements for existing buildings and Local Law 97 (2019) existing buildings greenhouse gas emissions limit for most buildings over 25,000 sf. The Building Energy Exchange (BE-Ex) has good info on their website at https://be-exchange.org/ and also see the link for PDF copy their architect's guide.

Thanks,
Mike

DC has recently adopted Building Energy Performance Standards for existing buildings. It's requires existing buildings over a certain size threshold to meet or exceed the median energy star performance by building type. The size of buildings required to comply will gradually be expanded to include smaller buildings and the energy performance thresholds will continue to increase based on energy star median performance. https://doee.dc.gov/service/building-energy-performance-standards-beps

You might find something in this resource that NEEP just released Community Commitment Tracker | Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (neep.org)