Peer Learning Collaborative

Peer Learning Collaborative:
Focused on Building Performance and Decarbonization

The California BPS Peer Learning Collaborative (CalBPS PLC) is a forum where staff from more than 45 cities and counties across the state share ideas and create alignment to accelerate and streamline the path to building performance standards and building decarbonization more broadly with consideration for equitable outcomes and overcoming the barriers to implementation.

The CalBPS PLC is facilitated by U.S. Green Building Council California and NORESCO. Our funding sources, sponsors, and partners are listed below. We host monthly CalBPS PLC meetings where we curate exchanges with stakeholders and bring in experts to discuss different aspects of building performance standards policy development and implementation.

The Collaborative also serves as an advisory group for the California Building Performance Hub.

There is no charge for cities and counties to participate and no commitment required. If you would like to learn more about the Collaborative, please complete our interest form.

What Are Building Performance Standards?

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are policies that require large buildings to reduce energy use or greenhouse gas emissions over time. They can be passed at the city, county, and state level. Learn more on our BPS overview page.

BPS policies are gaining popularity across the United States as one of the most cost effective mechanisms for local jurisdictions to achieve their climate and other sustainability targets. While the state and many cities have Benchmarking requirements that require energy use reports for large buildings, Chula Vista is the first (and so far only) city in California to implement a local BPS. Many other California cities and counties are developing or exploring local BPS policies and California Senate Bill 48 (Becker, 2023) requires the state to develop a statewide BPS strategy. Explore the hub to learn more about California’s existing benchmarking and beyond policies and policies under development.

Resources

CalBPS Peer Learning Collaborative members have access to a wealth of resources to guide your jurisdiction through every step of the decarbonization journey.

  • The Community Hub is an online tool for members to share best practices, offer insight, share documents, and more.

  • Meeting slides and recordings

  • Best practice guides, case studies, policy analysis, and technical insight that equips your jurisdiction with the knowledge and tools to drive meaningful change.

How to Participate

Membership in the Peer Learning Collaborative is free for cities and counties, and there is no commitment required. Some cities in the group already have a BPS ordinance in the works, while many others are only starting to think about developing a BPS policy.

To request an invitation to join the Collaborative, please complete our welcome questionnaire.

By fostering a vibrant community of changemakers, we can accelerate progress towards our shared sustainability goals!

Partners and Sponsors

The CalBPS Peer Learning Collaborative and Resource Hub are joint efforts led by NORESCO and USGBC-CA. These initiatives are supported by various partners and funding mechanisms as described below: 

NORESCO’s role in CalBPS is through a nationwide project led by ClearlyEnergy that is furthering building performance standards in small, rural and Justice40 communities. The project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Building Technologies Office – DE-FOA-0002813 – Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation

USGBC-CA’s role in CalBPS is a collaborative effort between multiple stakeholders with funding provided by the Department of Energy’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law:  Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (DE-FOA-0003225).

Funded by:

Sponsored by:

Partners include: