HILL ENERGY BRIEF: Help DOE Define What Makes a Clean Building

The Energy Department is asking the industry and academia for help in creating a standardized, verifiable definition of a zero-emissions building, in a request set to publish in today’s Federal Register.

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 ...