Learning from Advocacy for Energy Efficient Building Codes
Clean Techies, September 8, 2014
Efforts over the past decade to increase energy efficiency through building codes holds lessons that can be applied to any type of controversial regulation.
Until about 2007, building code policy was a sleepy, inside-baseball regulatory backwater. In most states, building codes are based on model codes developed by non-profit, third-party code developers, like the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association. These model codes are typically updated every three years. For the most part, a state (or, in some cases, municipal) committee of construction industry experts reviews the model code changes and makes recommendations to the agency that regulates construction. That regulatory agency then enacts the new code through regulation.