Here is a building code trend to expect in 2023. Have you heard of Building Performance Standards or BPS?
A lot of focus has been going towards energy efficiency with soaring energy prices in part driving this trend. For starters there is the Building Performance Standards or BPS. This is the "EPA’s Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Toolkit aims to inform and support 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."
The standards tend to help drive alignment amongst communities that help make it easier than having to decipher different building codes from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. According to Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships or NEEP, "...many states benchmark their buildings to gather data on the energy baselines of their existing building stock, but BPS takes it a step further by setting periodic targets for buildings to improve energy performance over time. Jurisdictions like Boston, New York City, the District of Columbia, and St. Louis, MO have implemented BPS to support their jurisdictional decarbonization goals."
We see this as a good thing as long as there is a lot of adoption taking place. Building codes are hard enough to decipher as it is and standardization goes a long ways in making the process better.
