Built Environment Highlights

State, Local, & Utility Policy Updates

ARKANSAS

Net-Zero Building Development

Entegrity, an energy service, sustainability, and solar development company, is developing a net-zero apartment and office building in downtown Fayetteville.

FLORIDA

Building Efficiency 305 (BE305) Challenge:

Miami-Dade County has launched the BE305 Challenge, which focuses on improving building energy and water efficiency, leading to reduced operational costs. The county is still recruiting buildings to join the challenge, and all registered participants will be entered to win a free energy and water audit for their building.

Building Code Assessment

In its Mitigation Action Portfolio, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) highlights Florida’s building code as the strongest among 18 the coastal states.

Climate Gentrification

The Keep Safe Miami program intends to help owners of affordable multifamily housing assess the resilience of their properties to global warming.

KENTUCKY

Grant Supports Affordable Energy Efficient Housing

An Office of Energy Policy (OEP) $15,000 grant is aiding efforts to make energy efficient homes more accessible to low- and moderate-income residents in southeast Kentucky. The grant covers costs for training builders to make insulation upgrades, rebates for installing heat pump water heaters, and home inspection and certification costs.

NORTH CAROLINA

Building Energy Code

A proposed change to North Carolina’s building energy code has been sent to the state budget office for fiscal review which could prolong its adoption by up to a year. The change would allow builders to bypass basic energy efficiency measures in exchange for voluntary green building standards.

Regional, National, & Federal Policy Updates

Energy Resource for State and Local Governments

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Toolkit that informs and supports state and local government decision makers who are exploring adopting policies focused on reducing energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing commercial and multifamily buildings in their communities.

Federal Resources for Energy Resilience and Disaster Mitigation Planning

The Weatherization and Intergovernmental Programs Office, through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has compiled federally funded and publicly available resilience resources for state energy offices.

International Code Council (ICC) Procedural Change

On March 3, the ICC board changed its voting procedure to the system used by the American National Standards Institute, which gives final code approval to development committees comprised of private and public sector stakeholders. Previously, any government code official who applied could vote. In 2019, hundreds applied to vote and overwhelmingly approved stronger energy efficiency standards.