The Caucus started working with Slipstream and the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) in 2022 and convened an Advanced Building Energy Efficiency Policies (ABEEP) Task Force of municipalities that are considering advanced building policies for their communities. Some 20+ communities convene periodically to learn about stretch codes, benchmarking, and building performance standards, and the ABEEP team helps prepare local governments to adopt these policies. The assistance that we have offered to municipalities to help them prepare to adopt advanced policies includes several fact sheets, one-on-one meetings with communities, presentations to internal or external stakeholders, and preparations for local town hall meetings on the topic. The ABEEP Task Force is funded by ComEd. Find out more about the policies and review past meeting materials below.
Stretch Codes
Focus: New construction and major renovations of residential and commercial buildings.
What is it? The Illinois Clean Energy and Jobs Act (CEJA) mandated the development of residential and commercial “stretch” energy codes. The stretch codes create higher standards for energy efficiency and reduced GHG emissions, as compared to the statewide base energy code.
Why do it? Municipalities may choose to adopt the residential and/or commercial stretch code, which then becomes the energy code within their boundaries. Cities and villages can adopt stretch codes to ensure reduced energy costs and GHG emissions throughout the community and to ensure that these savings will continue for decades.
Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards (BPS)
Focus: Existing commercial, mid-rise, and high-rise multifamily buildings
What is it? Benchmarking policies require owners of covered buildings to report how much energy the buildings consumed. Building Performance Standards (BPS) policies build on benchmarking ordinances by setting both interim and long-term targets for reducing energy use in those buildings.
Why do it? In most communities, the buildings that will consume the most energy, and produce the most GHG emissions, over the next 30 years have already been built. Therefore, communities that want to achieve energy and emissions reduction goals by 2030 and/or 2050 must take steps to reduce energy use in existing buildings.
Benchmarking and BPS policies focus on existing buildings and create lasting economic benefits for communities by increasing transparency on energy use and by requiring property owners to gradually improve efficiency and resilience of commercial and multifamily buildings over an extended period of time. BPS policies can impose fines for non-compliance as well as offer financial support – such as utility incentives – to offset costs of needed building improvements.
Past ABEEP Task Force Meeting Materials:
2024 Meetings
May 2, 2024
Topics covered: Stretch code update, developer discussed costs of constructing high-efficiency buildings, community updates, federal funding opportunity
Meeting Agenda, Presentations: ABEEP Task Force team updates and stretch code information slides, Developer perspective slides – Chris Dillion, President of Campbell Coyle Real Estate, Recording, Zoom Poll Results
2023 Meetings
Dec. 11, 2023
Topics covered: Guest speakers from City of Indianapolis discussed their benchmarking ordinance, stretch code development update, community updates, resources and technologies to help municipalities enact the policies
Meeting Agenda, Presentation slides: ABEEP Task Force slides, Benchmarking Basics – City of Indianapolis, Recording, Menti Results
Sept. 21, 2023
Topics covered: A guest speaker from the State of Massachusetts discussed their experience with having the longest running stretch code in the country, which 95% of communities have adopted. Other topics included community updates and results from the ABEEP Task Force survey, which covered perceptions of the policies, likelihood of adoption, barriers to adoption, and possible resources that help overcome barriers.
Presentation Slides, Recording
June 13, 2023
Topics covered: ABEEP Background and 2023 Plan, Policy First Steps: Stretch Code 101, Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards (BPS)
Meeting Agenda, Presentation Slides, Recording
2022 Meetings
Dec. 8, 2022
Meeting Agenda, Presentation Slides, Recording
Oct. 11, 2022
Meeting Agenda, Presentation Slides, Recording
Aug. 2022
Meeting Agenda, Presentation Slides, Recording
GRC and Climate Action Plan Goals
The ABEEP Task Force allows communities to progress on the Greenest Region Compact goals and advanced strategies to reduce energy consumption, enact policies that support clean energy, adopt stretch codes that set higher standards for efficiency than the IECC, and to enact a benchmarking ordinance for large energy users. The Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region goals and strategies that are aligned with the ABEEP Task Force include to implement clean energy policies; optimize building energy; to support robust building energy conservation codes, benchmarking, and building performance standards to optimize energy efficiency for retrofit projects; require high-performance, all-electric, and net zero new building construction; and to support state policies to advance clean energy.