Participants

Annapolis, Maryland | Mayor Gavin Buckley

Annapolis is proud to join other local governments in decarbonizing our built environment. Creating healthy, energy-efficient, and resilient buildings is essential to improving the quality of life for all of our community members. This is one of the reasons why I created the position of Deputy City Manager for Resilience and Sustainability.

Berkeley, California | Mayor Jesse Arreguín

I am proud to announce that the City of Berkeley joined the National Building Performance Standard Coalition. In 2021, we adopted Berkeley’s Existing Building Electrification Strategy which includes building performance standards as one of the four main strategies to accelerate an equitable transition off fossil fuels. Electrified buildings will provide healthier, more efficient, and resilient buildings that improve the quality of life for all residents. Berkeley is excited to participate in the national coalition and work alongside other communities to advance our climate and equity goals.

Boston, Massachusetts | Mayor Michelle Wu

As a coastal city that’s vulnerable to rising seas and extreme heat, Boston must be a national leader in driving a just transition to carbon neutrality. Our Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance sets the standard for securing major emissions reductions from large buildings, with specific benchmarks on the path to becoming a net zero city and clear mechanisms to ensure that environmental justice communities experience the benefits of net zero buildings.

Boulder, Colorado | Mayor Aaron Brockett

Our buildings must be safe, healthy, efficient, and affordable spaces for all of our community members as we face the ever-worsening impacts of climate change.  Advancing our housing affordability and building decarbonization goals remain top priorities for our community.  As Boulder looks to implement the next generation of our building performance standard, I am excited about our participation in the Coalition and the opportunity to learn from other communities and experts.

The State of California | California Energy Commission Commissioner Andrew McAllister

We are proud to be part of this effort as California increases its commitment to addressing the climate crisis with a historic $54 billion budget investment. Through this new coalition, we look forward to sharing our experience and learning from others about policies and processes that can move the needle towards healthier homes and a more sustainable future.

Chula Vista, California | Mayor Mary Casillas Salas

Chula Vista joined the Building Performance Standards Coalition to highlight the important work that must be done by local jurisdictions to drive retrofits in existing buildings, as buildings account for roughly 40 percent of energy consumed in the United States.  Our Building Energy Saving Ordinance, adopted by City Council in early 2021, targets buildings 20,000 square feet and above. The City will realize benefits that include improving the quality of Chula Vista’s commercial and multi-family building stock, helping building owners save money through cost-effective energy efficiency measures, educating tenants and real estate professionals about the value of building energy performance, and reducing carbon emissions in Chula Vista. These actions will help the City meet our Climate Action Plan goals – including our goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.  As a city that has focused on climate action since 2000 and was the first in San Diego County to adopt a Climate Action Plan, we are proud to be a leader and we look forward to learning more from other cities that are enacting similar regulations.

Colorado State | Governor Jared Polis

Denver, Colorado | Mayor Michael Hancock

Denver’s new building performance policy will make housing more affordable by lowering energy bills, and it will create a healthier city with better indoor air quality for our residents. This is especially important for people in under-resourced communities who often experience the worst effects of gas-powered buildings. By moving towards efficient, renewably powered buildings with the support of our stakeholders, we are showing how local governments can work with their communities to pass bold, achievable and equitable policies. This coalition is the start of a climate-safe future for all.

Evanston, Illinois | Mayor Daniel Biss

The City of Evanston is committed to an equitable, carbon-neutral future, and our participation in the White House National Building Performance Standards Coalition will facilitate collaboration with other cities that share that commitment. We know that achieving the Coalition’s goals will enable our residents to live healthier lives with more job opportunities, and it is clear that we cannot achieve these goals without collaboration across jurisdictions together with strong federal leadership.

Fort Collins, Colorado | Mayor Jeni Arndt

Over the last year, Fort Collins has experienced the unavoidable impacts of climate change, feeling the compounded pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside extreme heat days, severe wildfires, and resulting air and water quality issues. Addressing the climate crisis continues to be a top priority for our community, and we are committed to taking bold and accelerated action to address the impacts from Fort Collins’ built environment and minimum building performance standards are one of the many strategies that our City is exploring.

Grand Rapids, Michigan | Mayor Rosalynn Bliss

The City of Grand Rapids recognizes that decarbonizing our buildings is one of the most critical pathways to achieving communitywide net zero carbon emissions. In mid-2021, we launched our Equitable, Healthy and Zero Carbon Buildings Initiative (E.H.Zero), which builds upon the successful equity focused foundation that we built with our community based partner over the last several years through the national Zero Cities Project. It is critical that equity be a dual priority embedded into building performance standards and other high performing building programs.

Howard County, MD | Calvin Ball, Howard County Executive

The science tells us that climate change is one of the most urgent challenges of our generation and that we are running out of time to act. There is no better time than right now to commit to finding adequate climate solutions to improve community health. As we build upon the critical steps set forth in our Climate Action and Resiliency Plan and the work to be implemented by our Climate Subcabinet, Howard County is proud to join the National Buildings Performance Standards Coalition.

Kansas City, MO | Mayor Quinton Lucas

The climate crisis is among the most urgent issues we face as a nation and as a world, and Kansas City is committed to building an equitable and climate-resilient community for our future and for our children—in all neighborhoods. I am proud to partner with the White House on these ambitious climate objectives, and will look forward to sharing and receiving best practices with communities from across our country.

Los Angeles, California | Mayor Eric Garcetti

Buildings are not just our largest source of pollution – they represent one of our greatest opportunities to create good-paying jobs and turn the tide on the climate crisis. I’m proud to join the White House and leaders from around the country who are committed to reducing emissions from our buildings in order to build cleaner communities, improve public health, and create more inclusive economies.

Los Angeles County, California | Supervisors Sheila Kuehl & Holly J. Mitchell

Los Angeles County is 100% committed to addressing climate change and working to meet our federal clean air standards. By taking action to equitably decarbonize our buildings, we are positioning the County to move our region into a greener future with both local and global benefits. Decarbonization means cleaner air for our 10 million residents, as well as for the plants and animals with whom we share the region. As an added plus, we will lower climate risks for this country and for the rest of the world. We want to, and will, do our part. We are eager to engage with climate leaders across the country and are grateful to the White House for bringing us together.

– Supervisor Sheila Kuehl

Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by poor indoor air quality, high rent and utility burdens, and climate change. As we move towards decarbonizing buildings in Los Angeles County, we are ensuring a process that centers the voices of frontline communities, targets resources where they are most needed, and ultimately keeps residents in their homes while cleaning the air.

– Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell

Montgomery County, Maryland | County Executive Marc Elrich

We are proud to have submitted proposed legislation to our County Council that will require existing buildings to improve their energy performance.  If this bill is signed into law, we will join a select group of leading jurisdictions that have passed a BEPS policy that sets a minimum energy performance threshold for existing buildings.

Massachusetts State | Governor Maura Healey

Massachusetts is proud to be a national leader in energy efficiency and we’re excited to join the White House’s Building Performance Standard Coalition to deliver cleaner air and lower energy bills to Massachusetts residents and businesses. Our current efforts to gather data from our buildings, combined with the resources offered by this coalition of state and local leaders, will help Massachusetts accelerate our building decarbonization work.

Minneapolis, MN | Mayor Jacob Frey

Minneapolis is a national leader in addressing climate change, but our work is far from over. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions takes all of us—and this Innovation Hub will be a huge step in the right direction. I look forward to working with our local property owners to help them reach not only their own renewable energy goals but the goals we have as an entire community as well.

Montpelier, VT | Mayor Anne Watson

Montpelier, Vermont has made a commitment to achieve net-zero energy for our whole city by 2050, but we must work to achieve that goal ahead of schedule. With 40% of our buildings as rentals, I’m particularly interested in helping renters and landlords transition their buildings off of fossil fuels. The National BPS Coalition will be a community in which we can both learn from other leaders and share our successes and learnings as we all work toward a decarbonized future.

New Orleans, Louisiana | Mayor LaToya Cantrell

As we work towards a more sustainable city, we need to ensure that our buildings are efficient and affordable for our residents. Joining the National Building Performance Standards Coalition aligns with our City’s updated Climate Action Plan released last December, which includes achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and increasing renewable energy. Energy efficiency is a top goal of my administration, and we look forward to working with the Biden administration, our fellow cities and top experts in the field to achieve measurable results.

New York, New York | Mayor Eric Adams

New Yorkers deserve a clean, green city, and that is exactly what Local Law 97, our world-leading climate law, delivers. Every day, we’re creating a more livable city for all by reducing harmful greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions across the five boroughs — and especially in our environmental justice communities. Retrofitting the city’s buildings to comply with this law is also helping to rebuild our economy by creating thousands of good-paying ‘green-collar’ jobs. As a leader in this fight, I’m proud to stand alongside other members of this coalition to combat the impacts of climate change.

Oregon State | Governor Tina Kotek

Oregon is once again leading the nation in setting the bar to reduce climate pollution through collaborative policymaking. Together, through leveraging federal funding and private sector partnerships, we can create safer and healthier buildings for people to live and work in. We are proud to join the National Building Performance Standards Coalition and advance this work together.

Orlando, Florida | Mayor Buddy Dyer

Advancing building energy efficiency and resilience presents one of the greatest opportunities for cities to realize significant energy bill savings, catalyze local job creation and economic development, and reduce harmful air pollutants and carbon emissions associated with the built environment. More and more of the major issues of our time, whether it’s fighting crime and terrorism or whether it’s climate change, are being fought on the local level. Orlando stands committed a to zero-carbon future and we are delighted to join the new White House coalition of cities to help us better collaborate and continue advancing equitable climate and energy policy.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Mayor Jim Kenney

With the built environment accounting for 72 percent of Philadelphia’s carbon emissions, improving building performance will be a key strategy to achieving our carbon neutrality goal by 2050. But as one of the most energy burdened and high poverty cities, it is critical  that building decarbonization strategies also support low income residents. We look forward to participating in this coalition and tapping into leading experts to help us consider next steps.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | Mayor Ed Gainey

I am proud to commit Pittsburgh to the White House National BPS Coalition to ensure that our city becomes a center for innovative clean, green infrastructure. We must accelerate investment in effective, sustainable solutions to properly combat the climate crisis and we must ensure that these projects invest in the communities of color that have been subject to environmental racism for far too long.

Prince George’s County, Maryland | County Executive Angela Alsobrooks

Prince George’s County is working to improve the quality of life for our residents as we face the impacts of a changing climate. We are committed to Climate solutions that improve community health outcomes, provide good paying jobs, and reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Centering our decisions around equity, we lead the DC Metro region in community solar, are committed to transit-oriented development, health, education and food security, and want the places where our community lives, works and gathers to be safe, healthy and efficient.

Reno, Nevada | Mayor Hillary Schieve

By collecting benchmarking data on buildings and setting performance standards, we have the potential to change the future of Reno for the better. These efforts help us work toward solidifying Reno’s status as a leader in supporting sustainable economic development, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving public health outcomes through better indoor air quality and other benefits of better building performance and operations. We are proud the City of Reno has stepped up with so many other communities across the United States to lead that charge.

Sacramento, California | Mayor Darrell Steinberg

Sacramento is committed to fighting climate change and building a modern economy that uplifts all of our communities by connecting green jobs with strong workforce training. The White House Building Performance Standards Coalition offers a strong opportunity to advance policies that will equitably decarbonize and electrify Sacramento’s buildings. This work aligns with our momentum in this sector – Sacramento has adopted a new building electrification ordinance and is developing a pathway to transition existing buildings to carbon-free electricity by 2045.

San Diego, California | Mayor Todd Gloria

The climate crisis is an existential threat and San Diegans are already experiencing the dangerous impacts of wildfires, droughts, extreme heat and sea level rise. San Diego is committed to achieving a net zero greenhouse gas emissions future through a process that is inclusive and equitable. Joining the Building Performance Coalition will allow San Diego to build on existing efforts such as our Building Energy Benchmarking Ordinance and Municipal Energy Strategy to further the decarbonization of our building sector and create a safe and equitable built environment for all of us.

San Francisco, California | Mayor London N. Breed

Nearly half of San Francisco’s emissions currently come from buildings, so transitioning this sector from natural gas to clean electricity is critical to reach our climate, health, and resiliency goals. As we move to cleaner, more efficient technology, our strategies must protect low-and-middle income renters and owners, support affordable housing, ensure new jobs, and provide training for local workers. San Francisco is proud to participate in this coalition and we look forward to working with other jurisdictions to clean up the buildings sector.

Santa Monica, California | Mayor Gleam Davis

Santa Monica is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. Buildings represent over a third of our city’s carbon emissions, and existing buildings are ripe for improvements that can benefit both the environment and public health. The City of Santa Monica is pleased to join the national Building Performance Standards Coalition and looks forward to collaborating with other cities to develop and implement an equitable and effective standard for existing buildings.

Savannah, Georgia | Mayor Van R. Johnson II

Savannah wouldn’t be the city it is without its beautiful historic homes, but we know that those homes often carry tremendous costs in terms of energy use and health.  That’s why Savannah is excited to join the BPS coalition and set itself on a path to more efficient, healthier homes in accordance with our 100% Savannah clean energy goals.

Seattle, Washington | Mayor Bruce Harrell

The urgency of the climate crisis requires strong leadership at every level of government. Seattle is proud to join efforts across the nation to advance climate solutions that lead to real reductions in building greenhouse gas emissions, create healthy workplaces and homes, and strengthen and develop our clean energy workforce.

Designing an equitable building performance standards policy is critical work – and Seattle has begun that work by bringing stakeholders together – engaging frontline communities, labor unions, building owners and operators, and many more. Together, at home and in this coalition, we can advance innovative, urgent, climate-forward policy that creates jobs and reduces emissions with climate justice at the center. I know through collaboration and peer learning we will continue our march to ensure green, carbon-free buildings, and I invite my colleagues across the nation to join in this critical work.

Washington, DC | Mayor Muriel Bowser

When cities and states come together around climate goals, we have the collective ability to put our nation on a better, greener, and more sustainable path forward. As we prepare to make big investments in our nation’s infrastructure, including buildings and housing, we know that the implementation of the Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) program is critical to creating communities that support our shared climate goals.

We are proud to be leading this work in Washington, DC through our Clean Energy DC Plan and by making sure property owners, especially of multifamily affordable homes, get the technical and financial support they need to come into compliance with more efficient and resilient living spaces. We are proud of the work we are doing here in DC and look forward to joining in this nationwide effort.

West Hollywood, CA | Mayor Sepi Shyne

The City of West Hollywood has long been a national leader in climate action, surpassing the emissions reduction goals outlined in its 2011 Climate Action Plan and committing to carbon neutrality by 2035 in its updated 2021 Climate Action & Adaptation Plan. Energy use in buildings is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions across our City, so decarbonizing buildings is a crucial step toward achieving our carbon neutrality goal and improving our community’s quality of life and resiliency. Joining the National Building Performance Standard Coalition will help West Hollywood advance its work to develop equitable building performance standards for existing buildings. We are equally committed to reducing emissions from existing buildings and ensuring that these policies benefit everyone in our community. West Hollywood is proud to join this Coalition and work with our fellow cities to tackle the transition to a healthier, more resilient future.