New toolkit offers local governments energy-saving strategies for buildings

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy is offering a new resource to inform local officials to boost energy savings in buildings.

“The Toolkit on Local Government Strategies for Achieving Energy Savings in Buildings” provides an overview of high-impact strategies for energy savings. The toolkit contains local government policy options for new and existing buildings.

It examines policies targeting new buildings including building energy codes, building code compliance, and green building requirements and certifications. Policies for existing buildings include requirements for energy audits, retrofits, retro-commissioning, benchmarking, and transparency requirements.

The toolkit provides a range of energy savings potential for each policy that will depend on the makeup of a city’s building stock, including the range of building size, age, and levels of efficiency.