Built Environment Highlights

Built Environment State, Local, and Utility Policy Updates

GEORGIA

Study Reveals Unequal Urban Heat Burdens: A collaborative study including academic, municipal, and community-based partners is examining how historically racist infrastructure and extreme heat are disproportionately affecting BIPOC communities and low-income communities in urban areas. In August, SEEA staff volunteered with the project to capture urban center temperatures for the study.

Energy Justice: Local nonprofits and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) work together on building community resilience centers powered by solar generation and battery storage in west Atlanta. In Atlanta, low-income, Black, and Hispanic households face higher energy burdens, and energy equity is a focus of the initiative to distribute fair energy benefits to all communities within the city.

FLORIDA

EV Ready Construction: The Orlando City Council passed an ordinance that requires charging station infrastructure and stations installed in new construction in city limits. Amending the city’s land development code, the ordinance requires commercial and industrial developments have 10% of parking spaces be EV capable and 2% of parking spaces need to be EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) installed. Multi-family housing, hotels, and parking structures must have 20% of parking spaces EV capable and 2% of parking spaces be EVSE installed. EV capable means installing the necessary infrastructure to support charging stations, but not the physical station. EVSE installed means the physical charging stations are installed and reserved for electric vehicles.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Energy Efficiency for Small Businesses: Dominion Energy has expanded its Small Business Energy Solutions Program, which supports energy efficiency upgrades to small business and nonprofit customers. The new benefits now include advanced heating and cooling system tune-ups, smart thermostats, duct sealing and HVAC controls. The program covers 90% or up to $6,000 of the cost of improvements.

TENNESSEE

HBCU Energy Savings: Lane College, a liberal arts institution and HBCU in Jackson partnered with Entegrity, an energy services company to save the college $11 million in energy costs including an LED lighting retrofit, water conservation measures, and HVAC upgrades to maximize energy savings. Entegrity will also install new aluminum windows that will improve envelope efficiency and update the aesthetics of the campus’s buildings without compromising their historical appeal.

VIRGINIA

Small-scale Fuel Transition: Two nonprofits in Charlottesville partnered to help eight low-income homeowners in Virginia switch to all electric appliances in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and their household energy costs. The project reported a 39% reduction in household emissions, while monthly utility bills did not universally drop, occupants did report increased comfort.

Municipal Gas Ban: In September, the Richmond City Council passed a climate resolution that included a commitment to work “with the city’s administration on an equitable plan to phase out reliance on gas and shift to accelerated investment in city-owned renewable energy and hereby recognizes that the continued operation of the city’s gas utility is an obstacle to the city’s goal of net-zero emissions.”

Built Environment Regional, National, and Federal Policy Updates

EV Charging Building Codes: The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Auto Innovators) has pledged to promote buildings codes requiring Level 2 chargers in 100% of new residential parking spaces at multi-unit dwellings and singlefamily homes, while increasing new workplace and public chargers. This is one of six guiding principles the Auto Innovators adopted with the goal of advancing electric vehicle adoption. The Auto Innovators will be “engaging stakeholders and policymakers at all levels” ranging from local jurisdictions to the International Code Council.

Climate poverty: A new study finds that public housing is at higher risk to natural disasters, exacerbating environmental inequality. The housing coalition report states that disaster damage is linked to compounded issues of poverty, high population rate, and inadequate infrastructure. Subsidized housing, supported by rent vouchers, tax credits, and subsidies, see the highest risk at 32% located in natural disaster areas.

New Energy Efficiency Standards for Manufactured Homes: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is considering new energy efficiency standards for manufactured housing and has released a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR). The proposed standards are based on 2021 version of International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The new standards will impact the building thermal envelope; air sealing; installation of insulation; duct sealing; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; service hot water systems; mechanical ventilation fan efficacy; and heating and cooling equipment sizing.

New Innovations to Improve Building Retrofitting: In August, the DOE announced 10 winners of the American-Made E-ROBOT prize which fast-tracks robotic solutions that can help improve building efficiency through “faster, safer, and more accessible building-envelope” retrofitting. Improving the accessibility will complement current building practices and create more opportunities in both the workforce and for addressing building CO2 emissions, which account for 35% of total emissions in the U.S.

Student Competition in Building Technology: JUMP into STEM, a DOE program that promotes undergraduate and graduate student innovation at U.S. colleges and universities, opened team submissions in August. Challenges for 2021- 2022 program include “Equal Access to Healthy Indoor Air,” “Resilience for All in the Wake of Disaster,” and “Solving Market Adoption for Emerging Efficiency Technologies.”

National, State, and Local Code Analysis: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory released updated state, national, and local energy code opportunity impact factsheets , highlighting the cost-effectiveness of updated model codes across the United States. The study quantifies the cost savings according to associated energy and takes into consideration utility rates, climate conditions, regional construction, and incremental costs.

Tennessee Valley States Rank Low in Residential Energy Efficiency: Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia are among the five worst states in the country for residential energy efficiency according to a new study. All seven states in the Tennessee Valley rank among the bottom third of U.S. states in the efficiency of residents’ homes, despite the lower electricity rates.