Last June, we looked at the first compliance deadlines for building performance standards. A year later, we’re starting to see the data…and the results are promising. Across the next year, IMT will share stories and data from these jurisdictions to highlight how these policies are working.
Key takeaways at a glance
- Buildings are hitting their targets. New York City’s LL97 has a 93% report submission rate, and over 95% of audited private-building submissions were found compliant.
- Jurisdictions intend to enforce. Cities are sending notices of deficiency and violation, and following through on penalties to signal the policies are here to stay.
- Policies are responsive to local needs. Denver and Washington State are using rulemaking and extensions to keep implementation moving while adapting to stakeholder feedback.
- BPS are working as intended. In DC, buildings that haven’t yet met their targets still cut energy use by 13% on average, showing the policies are driving real improvement.
Where and when?
16 U.S. jurisdictions have adopted a BPS and are at varying points in the implementation process. Of the 16, six jurisdictions have a first reporting or evaluation year in either 2025 or 2026.
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 25,000+ square feet
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 25,000+ square feet
Deadlines: June 1, 2026 for those who do not earn the extension; June 1, 2029 for those who do
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 35,000+ square feet; 35 units+ for multifamily
Deadlines: August 15, 2026 for reporting; September 1, 2026 for ACPs; October 31, 2026 for purchasing RECs
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 220,000+ square feet
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 50,000+ square feet (excludes affordable multifamily housing and houses of worship)
Buildings covered for Cycle 1: 50,000+ square feet
*Deadlines including extensions. Tap a jurisdiction to see full details.
What do we know so far?
Initial data illustrates that the majority of building owners are submitting their required reports, and jurisdictions are setting up processes to continue to help building owners to meet requirements and to enforce penalties where needed. From what we have seen so far, there are a few high-level takeaways
New York City, whose LL97 law covers around 28,000 buildings, has a 93% compliance rate with report submissions. Perhaps even more exciting, New York City’s Department of Buildings has audited the 65% of BPS submissions for private buildings and found that over 95% of them were compliant. It can be done! To hear the Department’s Laura Popa discuss initial results, check out Urban Green Council’s Fireside Chat.
In DC, preliminary analysis on how buildings are performing two years prior to the compliance deadline illustrates that buildings are largely on track to meet the targets. In particular, Andrew Held at DOEE completed an analysis on multifamily, office, and hotel buildings and estimates that 71% of buildings are on track to meet the targets based on 2024 data, or data from two years prior to compliance.
Jurisdictions are working with building owners to drive high compliance–and also signaling to the market that they intend to enforce the policies fully. This signal is vital for building owners to have a reason to continue to take action to meet future cycles. In New York City, the Department of Buildings has mailed notices of deficiency to noncompliant properties and provided a 60-day window for properties to file late reports and avoid penalties. The Department intends to assess penalties both for buildings that did not file their report and for any buildings over the emissions limit.
Similarly, the City of Denver intends to send out notices of violation later this year to any building owner that has not received an extension or complied with the first interim target. Washington State has made clear that, once the penalties timeline has been established, penalties will be assessed after two notices of violation have been sent with opportunities to correct.
Both Denver and Washington State are using the rulemaking and refinements processes to adapt requirements to realities and respond to stakeholder feedback. This includes making sure the policy offers the right compliance pathways, extensions, and exemptions to make compliance feasible for more buildings. Rather than pause and delay all implementation, both jurisdictions are keeping the policies moving while completing updates by granting extensions to owners–providing flexibility while maintaining regulatory certainty.
In Denver, Energize Denver offered building owners an extension: owners could shift their first interim BPS target to 2028 if the owners benchmarked during the 2025 reporting year. However, about 11% of buildings have not received the extension either because the owner did not submit their benchmarking report or they were already in compliance with their interim target. In some cases, additional buildings may see violation notices later this year.
Washington State is finalizing its Clean Building Performance Standard rules in July, so buildings in the first compliance tier—those over 220,000 square feet—can submit applications for extensions up to six months.
The bottom line is that these policies have permanently shifted how we think about energy efficiency and overall performance of existing buildings. They are transforming local markets for large buildings by encouraging improved operations as well as earlier and deeper retrofits. In DC, the preliminary analysis showed that buildings which have not met the target have, nonetheless, reduced their energy use by 13% on average between 2019 and 2024. In comparison, higher performing buildings that already met the target on average made no further reductions in energy use in that same time period. This demonstrates that BPS policies are spurring energy improvements among lower-performing buildings, especially in cases where buildings have not yet achieved compliance.
As NYC’s Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani put it in April, “The high compliance rate …[is] proof that coordinated climate action can work at scale in a city as large and complex as ours. This progress reflects the dedication of building owners who understand the consequences that inaction on climate change will have on our city, as well as the ingenuity of retrofit professionals advancing practical, data backed innovations to transform our building stock.”
What’s coming next
There will be more data and lessons learned as more jurisdictions hit their reporting deadlines and review and compile data. IMT plans to share additional blogs in the coming months that dive into more data and stories from jurisdictions and building owners.
