ASHRAE Updates Energy Efficiency Standard for Existing Buildings

Dive Brief:

• ASHRAE released the latest edition of its energy efficiency standard for existing buildings Jan. 17, expanding its focus on building decarbonization.
• Updates in Standard 100-2024, the Energy and Emissions Building Performance Standard for Existing Buildings, include new metrics for setting greenhouse gas emissions targets, requirements to establish energy management plans and achieve energy and emissions performance goals, and a “simple compliance mechanism” for energy-efficient and low-emission buildings, ASHRAE said in a press release.
• The updates align with expanding commitments by U.S. cities and states to implement benchmarking and building performance standards and to mandate energy and emissions reductions in existing buildings.

Dive Insight:

U.S. municipalities commonly adopt the professional society’s standards as part of their building and energy codes. The new updates to Standard 100, last revised in 2017, come as building owners and operators face growing pressures to decarbonize their buildings.

Historically, once buildings were constructed, there was no obligation to make them better, even when new building energy codes and standards were adopted. That is changing, however, as cities and states continue to mandate energy and emissions benchmarking and building performance standards, according to Marshall Duer-Balkind, director of policy programs at the Institute for Market Transformation.

As of late 2023, “12 local and state governments have passed building performance standards that specify a minimum level of energy/climate performance for all buildings over a certain size, with fixed deadlines over the next three to 10 years. The National Building Performance Standards Coalition has more than 40 jurisdictions signed on to pass similar policies,” Duer-Balkind said in a Jan. 2 article in Smart Cities Dive.

Standard 100 could play a role in those regulations as states integrate the standard into their own legislation and reporting frameworks. Prior to this update, ASHRAE partnered with Washington state to build a custom version of Standard 100-2018 that incorporated state-specific changes meant to facilitate an early adoption pathway for building owners and facilities managers. That custom standard, published in July 2021, followed Washington’s passage of the country’s first statewide building performance standards in 2019.

In addition to meeting state and local mandates, building operators across the country are reducing their energy consumption and implementing renewable energy to attract tenants, satisfy occupier demands and command green premiums for commercial office space.

“​​As the demand grows for reduced energy use and carbon emission in existing [buildings], there has been heightened interest in Standard 100 within the past year for its potential to shape building regulations on an expanded level,” ASHRAE President Ginger Scoggins said in the release. “The development of this revised standard underscores our commitment to advancing sustainability measures and responding to the evolving needs of the industry.”