What do the tiny Berkshire hamlet of Becket and the city of Worcester have in common? How is our state capitol of Boston similar to Pembroke and Scituate?
While in many ways as different as night and day, these communities – and dozens more from Williamstown on the New York border to Mashpee on Cape Cod – share a common building code that requires approximately 20 percent greater energy efficiency than the existing base energy code in new residential and commercial buildings.
With buildings accounting for more than 40 percent of all energy use and cost in Massachusetts, this new energy “stretch” code will yield tremendous savings for home owners, tenants and businesses while helping to fuel the state’s burgeoning energy efficiency job sector and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
The Patrick-Murray Administration displayed its nation-leading clean energy leadership once again when Massachusetts became the first state to adopt a stretch energy code designed to take energy efficiency to the next level. Adopted by the Board of Building Regulations and Standards in May 2009, the stretch code became available for local adoption in January 2010.
What was expected to be a steep climb toward widespread approval of the optional code turned out to be smooth sailing – as more than three dozen cities and towns voted to adopt the stretch code within the first few months of 2010. Today, 67 diverse communities representing more than 2.4 million people – 39 percent of the Massachusetts population – have embraced state-of-the-art energy efficiency standards for their homes and offices.
Reduces Air Pollution
Technically an optional appendix to the Massachusetts Building Code, the stretch code applies to all residential buildings from single family homes up to and including buildings three stories or less of any size, and many kinds of new commercial buildings more than 5,000 square feet. It excludes facilities with unusual energy usage requirements, such as supermarkets, laboratories and warehouses up to 40,000 square feet.
In a state that pays among the highest electricity costs in the nation, the stretch code allows municipalities to save money for their residents and businesses through lower utility bills, while helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution that results from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity.
Adding to this win-win equation, it turns out that significantly improving building energy efficiency adds little to initial construction costs, but reallocates construction spending to materials and labor. Reporting on the Massachusetts stretch code, New Buildings Institute cited Institute for Market Transformation data indicating that adoption of advanced energy codes, such as the commonwealth’s, could create more than 20,000 new jobs nationwide.
That statistic is good news for Massachusetts, where Governor Patrick’s clean energy agenda has already revved the commonwealth’s economy – doubling employment in the energy efficiency sector since 2007 and resulting in overall job growth in clean energy jobs of 67 percent in the past four years.
Moreover, we have heard from those in the construction industry that efficiency improvement measures needed to meet stretch code requirements don’t pose a problem. They are standard techniques that experienced builders and contractors are familiar with – installing high-efficiency heating systems, ensuring insulation is installed correctly, making sure air sealing is done properly, and putting in highly efficient light fixtures and bulbs.
The 67 Massachusetts communities that have already voted to adopt the stretch code are clean-energy pioneers. I’m confident that time will prove that adopting the stretch code translates into smart economics too, and I look forward to a day sometime soon when all 351 cities and towns in the commonwealth have voted to lock in savings through state-of-the-art energy efficiency in their buildings.
Phil Giudice is energy undersecretary, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
