Sierra Club Disappointed with Building Code Vote #CleanEnergy #IECC

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS) voted to adopt the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), with Massachusetts amendments, as well as amendments to the stretch building code.

 

Sierra Club and other advocacy groups urged the BBRS to make the stretch code include more energy efficiency infrastructure along with electric vehicle and solar readiness provisions to be added to the base code, but those two items were tabled until the Board holds their hearings on the 9th edition of the state building code.

In response, Emily Norton, Massachusetts Chapter Director for the Sierra Club, issued the following statement:

“The Board of Building Regulations and Standards had an opportunity today to help residents, businesses and municipalities save energy and money by strengthening the stretch building code and incorporating electric vehicle charging and solar readiness into the base building code. We are disappointed and frankly astonished that they did not take this opportunity.

“At a time when Massachusetts is facing public scrutiny is the wake of the unanimous Supreme Judicial Court decision that we are not in compliance with the Global Warming Solutions Act, and considering the Baker Administration Clean Energy and Climate Plan update from 2015 identifies ‘energy efficiency in new construction’ as ‘the most cost effective way for the buildings sector to reduce emissions between 2015 and 2050,’ this vote is a step in the wrong direction.”