Building Performance Standards

Energy used in buildings is the leading contributor to MN greenhouse gas emissions. Although focus on decarbonizing energy generation is important, reducing energy demand is just as critical and often less costly. In 2023, Minnesota lawmakers required building benchmarking, a practice for measuring and monitoring building energy use, for commercial and multifamily buildings 50,000 square feet and greater in the Twin Cities metro and Duluth, Rochester, and St. Cloud. Building benchmarking helps drive energy efficiency improvements in buildings and typically results in 1–3% energy savings annually. 

The pace of energy and greenhouse gas emission savings, even with the benchmarking policy, is insufficient to meet Minnesota’s climate target of net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050. Members of the MN legislature are motivated to work on climate-focused legislation and address this gap. According to Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework, retrofitting large existing buildings and improving building energy efficiency standards were identified as two of the highest impact strategies for reducing cumulative greenhouse gas emissions.  

It is for these reasons that Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) hosted a workshop series bringing together stakeholders of large existing buildings to discuss policies to reduce emissions in such buildings. In particular, a large portion of the conversation will be on building performance standards (BPS) policy, as it is an increasingly common approach nationally to address this issue.