Resources for Local Jurisdictions
Implement Building Performance Standards in Your Community
Buildings are often the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in a jurisdiction, so reducing emissions from buildings is critical to meet climate goals. Higher performing buildings can also help cities achieve health, water, and electric grid reliability goals.
The California Building Performance Hub has resources to help municipal staff and elected leaders decide if Building Performance Standards are right for your community.
-
Learn
Review our content on Building Performance Standards (BPS), and how they can help reach climate goals.
Attend an upcoming training related to Building Performance Standards.
-
Explore
Learn about the Benchmarking, Beyond Benchmarking, and BPS policies in place or being planned in California.
Use our interactive Building Support Agent to get answers on questions related to BPS or high performance buildings.
-
Collaborate
Join the California BPS Peer Learning Collaborative (CalBPS PLC), a forum for cities, counties, and other stakeholders to learn about BPS policies and share best practices.
The Collaborative is free for city and county staff to join.
-
Implement
Download our Model Building Performance Standards Policy Guidance for CA Cities & Counties.
Share the Hub with stakeholders in your community.
More Resources for Local Jurisdictions
Policy Design
USGBC California: With direction from the CalBPS Peer Learning Collaborative, USGBC-CA has released California Policy Guidance: Model for Local Building Performance Standards. A model ordinance version of this model policy is in the works.
IMT: The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) has a wealth of resources related to Building Performance Standards, including a model ordinance and Comparison of Building Performance Standards across the United States.
Policy Explorer Tool: The Local Energy Codes team’s Policy Explorer Tool includes a feature to assist local jurisdictions in understanding their existing multifamily and nonresidential building stock, allowing you to see the impact of different building size thresholds, for example.
Federal Resources: The EPA has resources on developing BPS policy, including Understanding and Choosing Metrics for Building Performance Standards and Recommended Metrics and Normalization Methods for Use in State and Local Building Performance Standards. The DOE has a report on Implementation and Administration of Building Performance Standards.
Equity and Tenant Protections
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) and IMT have released several reports on how to equitably decarbonize buildings and protect tenants rights, such as Tenants at the Center: An Equitable Path to Building Decarbonization (2025) and Understanding the Housing Affordability Risk Posed by Building Performance Policies (2020).
Energy Efficiency For All's Tenant Benefit and Protections Principles establish a comprehensive framework for California property owners to implement energy efficiency upgrades that reduce tenant energy burdens while ensuring affordability, health benefits, and equitable financial outcomes for residents in multifamily housing.
Building Department Training
Schedule a training on BPS and High Performing Buildings for your jurisdiction’s building department
General Resources for Policymakers
The California Energy Commission hosts a building and home energy resource hub for local government representatives
The National BPS Coalition houses the Building Performance Standards Resource Library of publicly available resources from local, state, and federal governments and leading nonprofits.
Clearly Energy hosts the Center for Building Performance Standards, which has a range of resources for policy makers and building owners.