IMT’s vision is to create a world where buildings dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions and support our physical, social, and economic well-being. Building performance standards (BPS) are one of the most powerful policy tools to achieve these goals, and while there are 15 that have been adopted starting in 2019, none have yet reached their first performance compliance deadline. That is about to change.
This year marks an exciting milestone in our field: the first BPS compliance deadlines are taking effect in New York City, Denver, and St. Louis now through the fall (as measured in the benchmarking reports due at this time). We’ll soon be able to assess how these policies are actually working. These policies typically allow building owners at least five years from standard setting to compliance, in order to take into account the time it takes to plan and execute retrofit projects. Some of our policy experts reflect on the moment we’re in and what to expect.
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What’s the key takeaway for building owners and the real estate industry?
Marshall Duer-Balkind, Director of Policy Programs
While we don’t have data yet for the 2025 deadlines, we know that progress is being made! Many buildings are already meeting the standards, and more are on track to do so. We analyzed this question in an ACEEE summer study paper last year, and will publish an updated analysis this summer. One key finding of our analysis is that how the targets are set has a major impact on compliance percentages—while cities are seeing improved compliance rates year over year, more ambitious targets have led to fewer buildings that initially met or are now meeting the standards. This challenge of balancing needed climate action with short-term feasibility is going to be increasingly important as BPS policies expand.
Cliff Majersik, Senior Advisor
BPS can be material to the bottom lines of building owners, investors, lenders, and service providers. Building owners and those who serve them can gain competitive advantage by factoring BPS into their plans and operations. To profit, real estate players need to integrate BPS considerations into everything from capital plans to key performance indicators to due diligence checklists. Players should start in jurisdictions that already have BPS and expand outward to future-proof their entire portfolio of buildings and services. Building owners will look to service providers to help them understand and plan for BPS; so, it’s critical that service providers stay ahead of their clients on BPS.
Rajiv Ravulapati, Associate Director of Government Engagement
As BPS keep passing across the country, we’re iterating and improving on these policies. Local and state governments are collaborating with each other right now through structures like IMT’s National Building Performance Standards Coalition. I’m talking with city staff everyday to find decarbonization solutions that will support building owners as they pursue compliance and ensure that jurisdictions meet their climate goals.
Jessica Miller, Senior Director Policy Strategy and Engagement
Making investments in building performance is so important at this time for a myriad of reasons. Buildings are an intersection point for many of the key challenges that communities are facing right now from climate change to health to affordability. Many of our buildings need work to better protect residents and tenants in our changing climate. I hope building owners use the BPS compliance process to think holistically about what it means to future-proof their assets and the people who rely on them.
What’s the current status of BPS?
To dig into the specific policy overviews or where BPS are being passed across the country, check out IMT’s Maps and Comparison resources.
Cliff on New York City
NYC’s first compliance deadline for Local Law 97, along with 2024 benchmarking reporting under Local Law 84, has been extended until June 30. NYC has given owners covered by LL97 a streamlined option to receive a further extension until December 31, 2025. Owners of buildings whose GHG intensity in 2024 exceeds LL97’s limits can request a two-year good faith extension, which requires that they comply with other requirements and submit a plan to improve building performance. According to an analysis by Urban Green of recent benchmarking data, 92% of covered buildings were already meeting LL97’s 2024 standards as of 2023.
In a ruling that came as no surprise, but was still good news for reducing uncertainty, New York Appeals Court ruled last month that Local Law 97 is not preempted by the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. So, owners should continue to invest to improve their buildings’ performance and comply with LL97.
Building owners can seek compliance assistance and resources for improving building performance through programs offered by groups like BE-EX, NYSERDA, and ConEd.
Owners will need to invest billions of dollars to improve the performance of their buildings to meet LL97’s requirements for 2030 creating jobs in the clean energy sector. The Department of Energy’s 2024 U.S. Energy & Employment Jobs Report noted that: “In 2023, jobs in the energy sector reached 8.4 million, representing over 5% of all U.S. jobs. From 2022-2023, the sector experienced 3% growth, outpacing 2% job growth in the rest of the economy.”
Marshall on Denver
The city’s first BPS compliance deadline, along with 2024 benchmarking reporting, has been extended from June 1 to September 1, 2025.
Denver has one of the most ambitious BPS policies in the U.S. It uses a ‘trajectory model’ wherein every building has a different EUI target for 2024 on a straight-line trajectory from their historic performance baseline to the building-type-specific BPS target in 2030.
While the trajectory structure provides flexibility, it does make it challenging for us to assess what each building’s 2024 target is and the percentage of buildings on track to meet them. IMT first proposed this trajectory model in our model BPS ordinance in 2021, and Denver was the first jurisdiction to utilize it. This model balances short-term sensitivity to each building’s historic conditions with longer-term certainty of final targets. However, as we have seen with Denver, the question of what and when that final target is makes a massive difference.
Compliance flexibility thus becomes all the more important to address real-world concerns. Denver just fully revised their regulations and guidance to address stakeholder comments. They have also joined a new IMT project focused on improving alternative compliance pathways, and we’re looking forward to learning from their experiences. Owners in Denver can get assistance and rebates from the Energize Denver Hub, Xcel Energy, and the Denver Regional Council of Governments.
Rajiv on St. Louis
May 1, 2025 was the reporting deadline for building owners to submit their previous year’s benchmarking data, for some buildings to show improvements, and for data verification purposes which is pivotal for ensuring buildings subject to BEPS have accurate, verified data.
Most building owners have to comply with a four year compliance cycle; houses of worship and qualified affordable housing have a six year timeline. The May 1st reporting deadline pertains to both benchmarking, but also to that first compliance cycle. So this is going to be the first year where we’ll see results from the past four years: did building owners meet their targets, how well did they perform, and how many are going to be compliant?
From my time working at the City of St. Louis’ Building Division, I know that one of the biggest challenges for compliance lies in the learning curve—many building owners, especially those in under-resourced buildings like the City’s public schools, are still becoming familiar with what the Building Energy Performance Standard requires of them. Data verification, understanding compliance targets, and navigating retrofit financing are all areas where capacity and confidence still need to grow. Some owners may also struggle to interpret benchmarking results and translate them into actionable retrofit strategies.
That said, we’re seeing developments. The Building Energy Exchange St. Louis (BE-Ex STL), the City’s Office of Building Performance, and local community partners are actively stepping in to fill knowledge and resource gaps. As these supports expand and building owners better understand how to meet performance targets, we hope compliance steadily improves. BE-Ex STL’s targeted trainings, resources, and one-on-one support services are especially important for demystifying the compliance process. Once building owners see how compliance can align with their long-term operational and financial goals, we anticipate greater buy-in and more widespread progress.
What’s next for IMT’s policy team when compliance data rolls in?
Jessica
IMT’s policy team is ready to meet this moment and is excited to take the lessons we learn from this first round of compliance to update our suite of BPS resources, including our BPS Model Law and Implementation Guide. We really see our role as one of supporting governments to pass ambitious policies and making sure they don’t have to start from scratch, are connected to peers and expert partners (both technical and community-facing) to tailor solutions to fit local needs. Since the first BPS was passed in 2019, we’ve been looking forward to having actual compliance data to help tell the story of how these policies are working and what they can do to help jurisdictions meet their climate commitments.
What are some features of the current energy efficiency landscape that are important in the context of BPS?
Marshall
We’re at a really interesting time where a lot of disparate thinking on what it means to electrify and decarbonize and improve the efficiency of our buildings is aligning and coming together. IMT is leading a new project focused on standardized approaches to BPS design and compliance, and we’ll be publishing a report on that this summer that looks at these emerging best practices and what we can learn from them.
Cliff
As we look at adding new loads on our electric grid for things like reshoring manufacturing and artificial intelligence, we must choose between two paths. The more expensive path is to spend over a trillion dollars focused only on the supply side, building more power generation, transmission lines, and distribution. Or we can take the less expensive path of focusing on the demand side and by getting more from the power that we have through energy efficiency and load shifting. Buildings and BPS can play a central role in saving billions of dollars. And, building owners should share in these savings by being paid to use less electricity at times when the grid is strained by peak loads.
Why do buildings matter to us right now?
Cliff
Buildings matter for climate action, for health, and for jobs. Buildings account for about a third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. In big cities, buildings tend to be the number one greenhouse gas contributor. And buildings are where we spend more than 90% of our time. So they have a huge impact on our health and wellness. Investing in our buildings makes for better quality of life and it creates jobs across all skill levels from electricians and engineers to roofers and laborers. These are jobs that can’t be outsourced because someone has to be there on-site doing the work.
Marshall
The impacts of climate change are here already, causing lots of damage. Every year we wait is one year more that it’s gonna be harder to act. People talk a lot about the need to decarbonize the economy by 2050. With most large buildings, that means between now and then we have one bite at the apple for major system replacements and major upgrades. We’re also in the midst of a massive transition in how we use downtowns across the United States. We need to leverage that opportunity to create buildings adapted to current and future climate conditions. So it’s really important to start setting the right policy signals today.
Rajiv
They affect our own public health, our economic stability, and are critical to our resilience to extreme weather. We’re in this business because buildings are essential for our communities and occupants to thrive. The type of building you’re in affects how much you pay on your energy bill, and how much you have left for other things.
Buildings are the front lines to help prepare us for future climate realities. We don’t know what all those realities are gonna look like in the next 20, 50, a hundred years, but that’s why it’s important that we make resilient and efficient buildings now to prepare us for that uncertain future.
