In October, at the International Code Council’s Annual Conference in Portland, Ore., the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN) recognized the inaugural winners of the Excellence in Energy Code Compliance Award. This new award program honors state and local jurisdictions that have raised compliance with energy codes using smart, cost-effective strategies.
The Town of Parker’s Building Division received the 2012 Excellence in Energy Code Compliance Award for Energy Code Champion.
Strong building energy codes are one of the most effective tools for ensuring that buildings are energy efficient, have low operational costs, and are healthy for occupants. While many states and counties have adopted stronger energy codes in recent years, there’s been a lack of funding for efforts to ensure compliance with those codes--efforts like training, outreach, implementation, and enforcement.
As a result, energy code compliance levels are below 50 percent in many places, and buildings are using more energy than they were designed to. Improving energy code compliance nationwide would result in huge benefits: a taskforce led by IMT found that every $1 spent on code compliance efforts yields up to $6 of energy savings.
Many building departments are finding ways to raise compliance rates despite constraints on their budgets and time. The Excellence in Energy Code Compliance Award recognizes their achievements. IMT and GBPN sponsored the grand-prize-winning jurisdiction to send one staff member to attend the 2012 ICC Annual Conference, to further his or her professional education and development. Winners will also be profiled on IMT’s website and blog at imt.org. The smart strategies they have used include building a demonstration "energy house" in the village hall (Hoffman Estates) and offering "beyond code" programs to familiarize builders with the latest advances in energy-efficient building techniques (Pima County).
“Simply enforcing the energy codes which have already been adopted will lead to higher quality construction, saving homeowners and business millions of dollars in energy costs each year,” said Jayson Antonoff, U.S. Director of GBPN. “This award is highlighting the great work by leading jurisdictions who recognize this, and have committed to providing this benefit to their communities.”
Congratulations to Gil Rossmiller and his team!