Policy Solutions

We've identified several important and effective policies to bring energy savings and resilience to Illinois Communities:

• Energy Benchmarking
• Stretch Energy Codes
• Building Performance Standards

These policies cover all building types, new construction and existing buildings, and work with existing federal and state programs. Learn more about these programs and how they can benefit your community below!

Benchmarking

You can't improve what you don't measure.

Benchmarking is the first step towards reducing energy use. Energy benchmarking means tracking a building’s annual energy and water use by using a standard metric to compare the building’s current performance against past performance, and to similar buildings both locally and nationwide. These comparisons help building owners, operators, and managers to identify and implement energy efficiency opportunities, increase occupancy rates and property values.

Chicago
• 5.2% reduction in energy from
2014 to 2018
• $15.1 million savings per year

Stretch Energy Codes

As an initiative of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), Illinois worked with energy efficiency experts and stakeholders to develop the Residential and Commercial Stretch Energy Codes.

Stretch Codes are alternative codes that municipalities can adopt in place of the base code. These codes set higher energy efficiency targets and require readiness for future installation of electric technologies—while offering multiple avenues to meet the new requirements. Stretch codes provide numerous benefits, including allowing municipalities to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in their jurisdictions without undergoing a long, difficult process of developing their own code and maintaining consistent standards across the state.

Building Performance Standards (BPS)

Building Performance Standards (BPS) are an innovative new policy approach for building efficiency and decarbonization. A BPS is a policy that sets specific deadlines for existing public and private buildings over a certain size to achieve quantified standards of performance across one or more metrics—such as energy use, water use, and/or greenhouse gas emissions. The standards become more ambitious over time, driving continuous, long-term improvement in the building stock.