Energy Department Starts Defining What a Clean Building Is

The Energy Department will call on industry and academia on Tuesday for help in creating a standardized, verifiable definition of a zero-emissions building.

No such definition currently exists in the federal bureaucracy, even as the Biden administration pushes for a net-zero economy by 2050. The building sector is a key part of that plan because it accounts for more than a third of US greenhouse gases.

Once finalized, the definition will create a common basis for determining what qualifies as a zero-emissions building, thus sending a market signal to steer the building sector, DOE said. In theory, it could also ...