WASHINGTON (CN) — The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday released guidelines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the residential and commercial building sectors.
While the National Blueprint for the Buildings Sector is nonbinding — meaning construction companies, building owners and local governments could ignore it — officials say it could reduce emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.
The Department of Energy said the plan is the first sector-wide strategy developed by the federal government for building decarbonization.
“America’s building sector accounts for more than a third of the harmful emissions jeopardizing our air and health, but the Biden-Harris Administration has developed a forward-looking strategy to slash these pollutants from buildings across the nation,” Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement. “As part of a whole-of-government approach, DOE is outlining for the first time ever a comprehensive federal plan to reduce energy in our homes, schools, and workplaces — lowering utility bills and creating healthier communities while combating the climate crisis.”
If the building sector meets the emissions goals laid out in the blueprint, officials estimate it would save consumers more than $100 billion in annual energy costs and reduce $17 billion in annual health costs.
The energy department emphasizes improvements to affordability through reduced energy costs and ways to make buildings more resilient to power outages.
Its four strategic objectives are increasing energy efficiency, accelerating onsite emissions reductions, improving interactions between buildings and the electricity grid and minimizing emissions from producing, transporting, installing and disposing of building materials.
The department also outlines objectives to meet performance targets and coordinated federal actions that can support emission reduction efforts. It calls for support of research and development on energy technology, spurring market development and improving efficiency standards and building codes.
“The scale and complexity of the buildings sector make decarbonization a significant challenge despite major advances in energy efficiency and electricity decarbonization in the last two decades,” the energy department says in its report. “To achieve this blueprint’s vision, it is critical to accelerate deployment of low-carbon solutions in both new construction and in existing buildings — particularly in disadvantaged communities, where building upgrades are most needed.”
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