Building Performance Standards – A Path to Greener Buildings

Regulations that Require Large Buildings to Reduce Energy Use or Greenhouse Gas Emissions Over Time

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are policies that require owners of large buildings to improve the sustainability of their buildings over time by tracking annual energy use and other metrics and making investments that allow their buildings to achieve successively ambitious targets in future years, with set milestone dates.

Buildings are often the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in a jurisdiction, so reducing emissions from buildings is critical to meet climate goals. Higher performing buildings can also help cities achieve health, water, and electric grid reliability goals. BPS policies apply to large buildings — usually 20,000 or 50,000 square feet and larger – and a relatively small number of buildings can account for disproportionate emissions.

BPS policies can be set at the city, county, or state level and the details vary by jurisdiction. They are gaining popularity across the United States as a mechanism for cities to achieve their climate and other sustainability targets.

BPS policies typically include a long-term efficiency or emissions goal for existing buildings (e.g. zero emissions by 2045), with interim milestones every 4-5 years. This gives building owners a clear understanding of future requirements and broad latitude of how to reach the targets, allowing them to choose which building improvements are most effective and when they should make them.

An Ecosystem to Accelerate the Path to Building Decarbonization in California

In California, while benchmarking policies are widespread, Chula Vista and West Hollywood are the only jurisdictions with local BPS ordinances. This is quickly changing, however. Many cities and counties are actively exploring BPS, and Senate Bill 48 (Becker, 2023) directs the state to develop a statewide strategy for BPS.

To support local governments during this pivotal moment, in early 2024, USGBC California and NORESCO launched the California Building Performance Standards Peer Learning Collaborative (CalBPS PLC) as a forum for cities and counties to share ideas and create alignment to accelerate and streamline the path to building decarbonization in California. Working together, CalBPS PLC curates exchanges focused on the strategies and corresponding deliverables that will help resolve the challenges related to building performance standards and decarbonization, with consideration for equitable outcomes and overcoming the barriers to implementation.

The CalBPS PLC Planning Team aims to create respectful, informative spaces for all groups to participate. Some sessions have a more targeted focus to support issues, challenges, and opportunities faced by California municipalities. Other sessions are structured to convene on issues, challenges, and opportunities faced by non-municipal partners (i.e., knowledge-holders of building decarbonization and building performance working in construction, real estate, labor, utility, community-based organizations, or elsewhere) . We encourage cross-pollination of knowledge and industry representation in order to mitigate silos and ensure the voices of all stakeholders are incorporated into the implementation of building decarbonization and building performance efforts.

There is no cost to join the CalBPS PLC.

To apply to join the Collaborative, please complete this interest form.

A Model for Local Building Performance Standards

With the input and support of the CalBPS PLC, we developed a model BPS policy for California cities and counties. The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), which published a national model BPS ordinance in 2021, also provided valuable insight and feedback. 

This policy guidance reflects the collaborative effort to establish a shared policy framework that provides flexibility for local needs while providing general consistency across jurisdictions and to the extent possible with a future statewide BPS. The guidance will be supplemented by model ordinance language in coming months.

Please click here to access the policy guidance.

Resources for Building Owners and Managers, Contractors & Service Providers, Residents & Tenants, and Local Municipalities

Whether you’re a policymaker crafting regulation, a building professional seeking guidance, or a community advocate championing change, we believe that the California Building Performance Hub can be your gateway to a greener tomorrow.

The Hub launched in October 2025 to gather resources related to benchmarking, BPS, and improving the performance of existing large buildings in one place. It includes the following resources:

Here are additional resources related to BPS

Collaborative Funded by the Department of Energy + Clearly Energy

The CalBPS Peer Learning Collaborative and Resource Hub are supported by various partners and funding mechanisms as described below:

USGBC-CA’s role in CalBPS is a collaborative effort between multiple stakeholders with funding provided by the Department of Energy’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (DE-FOA-0003225).

Are you interested in becoming a Program Partner or Sponsor?

Please reach out to michael@usgbc-ca.org.