National BPS Coalition

What is the National Building Performance Standard (BPS) Coalition?

The National Building Performance Standards Coalition is a nationwide group of local and state governments committed to improving building performance and fighting climate change. They are doing this by inclusively designing and implementing equitable building performance standards and complementary programs and policies. The Coalition has grown to 49 governments, including 7 states and 42 localities and continues to accept new members. The Coalition was launched in 2022 under President Biden with the support of the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT).In 2025, IMT assumes sole management of the Coalition to coordinate member engagement and support.

Why buildings?

Buildings are central to our lives, economy, and environment. Their performance affects indoor and outdoor air pollution and the health of our communities. The energy buildings use is a significant cost to households and businesses—and energy costs disproportionately burden low-income communities.

Buildings account for about a third of U.S. emissions and about 75% of electricity consumption. Climate researchers calculate that to hold global temperature rise below 2 degrees (Celcius) and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the U.S. and other developed countries must cut emissions dramatically by 2030. The math is clear: meeting climate goals requires significant emissions reductions from buildings, achieved through improved efficiency and increased use of clean energy.

What are Building Performance Standards?

Building performance standards (BPS) are state and local laws that require existing buildings to achieve minimum levels of energy or climate performance. Working in tandem with new construction energy codes, BPS empower state and local leaders to deliver on energy, climate, and equity goals through improved operations and accelerated retrofits.

A BPS is an innovative policy approach for building efficiency and decarbonization.It is an outcome-based policy that requires, by specific deadlines, existing buildings of specified sizes and types achieve quantified standards of measured building performance across one or more metrics—such as energy use, water use, and/or greenhouse gas emissions. The policies often set long-term and interim targets to provide regulatory certainty and provide multiple compliance pathways to offer flexibility, especially for affordable housing or other community priority building types.

Why place requirements on private businesses and buildings?

Buildings are a major driver of energy costs, and affordability is a core concern for owners, tenants, businesses, utilities, and governments alike. For decades, most jurisdictions have relied primarily on voluntary incentives to improve building performance. Those programs help, but experience from around the country shows they don’t deliver improvements at the speed or scale needed to lower bills, reduce emissions, and protect public health—especially in communities that have faced the highest energy burdens and worst air quality.

A BPS sets clear, mandatory outcomes—while preserving flexibility in how building owners meet them. Owners can choose the operational improvements, equipment upgrades, electrification pathways, and financing strategies that make the most sense for their portfolios. Strong policies also recognize that not every building can upgrade overnight, so many programs establish long-term standards with interim targets that ramp over time. This creates market certainty: it helps owners plan capital investments, helps service providers scale, and discourages spending on long-lived, inefficient systems that lock in high operating costs.

Improving efficiency and performance also helps reduce strain on the grid, lowering system costs over time and reducing outage risk—outcomes that benefit building owners and the broader economy.

What is the estimated impact?

As of 2025, Coalition members represent approximately 25% of the nation’s commercial building stock. IMT estimates that if Coalition members adopt and implement BPSretrofit policies and related programs at scale, impacts through 2040 could include:

• Better buildings for over 90 million people

• $132 billion cumulatively invested in building retrofits in Coalition jurisdictions through 2040

• 676 million metric tons (MMT) of CO₂e cumulatively eliminated through 2040

How does the National BPS Coalition work?

IMT has managed and led the Coalition’s growth since its launch. In 2025, federal technical assistance networks and support for BPS policy work were paused or terminated, increasing the importance of sustained Coalition infrastructure, shared resources, and peer learning.

The Coalition supports members through a model that emphasizes:

• Peer learning among jurisdictions

• Policy design and implementation support to advance equitable, enforceable building policies

•Community engagement approaches that center communities most impacted by climate change in shaping solutions

How is the Coalition’s work different from a city or state’s sustainability plan?

BPS policies focus specifically on building performance, while sustainability plans may also cover transportation, land use, waste, and other sectors. The Coalition also places particular emphasis on community-centered governance and equitable outcomes alongside technical policy design. BPS plans are designed to align into comprehensive City planning efforts for not only sustainability, but also workforce development, strategic land use, zoning, economic growth, and countless other elements.

Can my state, city or county participate in the Coalition?

If the commitment statement in “Coalition Participants and Their Commitments” aligns with your jurisdiction’s building-sector roadmap, priorities, and capacity, please use the “Contact Us” option below to discuss participation expectations and next steps. The chief executive (e.g. mayor, county executive, governor) for your jurisdiction must sign on.