The White House wants to define a Zero Emission Building

And we have thoughts

Late last year, the White House announced that it is developing a standard for a Zero Emissions Building (ZEB). They've released a preliminary set of concepts here and asked for comments by February 5th. More details are available here. 

This guidance comes at a critical time in our industry. The standards that we set today will determine the fate our our decarbonization commitments. There is hope. Just last month, the IRS issued draft requirements for green hydrogen tax credits that established a three pillars test, in which hourly matching, deliverability, and incrementality of clean energy purchases will be required for tax credit eligibility. The work of Jesse Jenkins and his team at Princeton's Zero Lab has shown that these requirements substantially contribute to decarbonization while only marginally contributing to cost increases.

Buildings themselves have become grid resources, with Virtual Power Plants now widely recognized as critical for the achievement of further renewable energy growth and overall grid decarbonization. A building is not simply a passive vessel of energy consumption, but an active participant in a decarbonizing grid.

But the stakes of this standard couldn’t be higher. Not only will the ZEB standard influence energy procurement for the 363 million square feet of buildings managed by the federal government, the US Green Building Council has also announced that the updated version of LEED will follow the White House’s guidance, which means that thousands of private commercial buildings will be impacted as well.

It is important that the White House hears from all of us regarding this important definition. We must seize this opportunity to encourage standards that actually move the needle on decarbonization. For too long the buildings industry has gotten away with "green" certifications based on a one-time assessment, or the purchase of meaningless RECs. Meanwhile, the very real contributions of buildings to the grid have been overlooked by standards bodies, meaning that the environmental benefits of distributed energy resources are roundly ignored, despite buildings accounting for 40% of annual emissions.

As we've been thinking about how to respond to the Request for Information, it seems helpful to approach this ZEB standard from a set of first principles. Now is not the time for a watered down version of a Zero Emissions Building. We have one chance to get this right and the higher we set the bar, the more likely we are to achieve our actual decarbonization goals.

There are a lot of interested parties who want a watered down standard, because it’s cheaper and easier to maintain the status quo. We’d like to invite all of you and your organizations to stand with us on the side of the climate, and to co-sign this response with us to send the message to the White House that zero emissions should mean something. Obviously this doesn't preclude you from submitting your own response, but it is important that the White House, DOE, and other governmental stakeholders hear from those of us who are on the front lines of the decarbonization movement.

Please find the draft here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_0kIZbxkn2pRpsbtqmPF4tS6013GOqrzL7LBVQkZ1bw/edit

I'll add names to the bottom of the draft as they come in, so please let me know in the comments below (or email me at mcgee@wattcarbon.com) if you'd be willing to sign on. Feel free to forward this to anyone else you think would be interested. I realize that the draft may also be imperfect and would welcome comments or feedback between now and next week when the submission is due.

Also, I just want to say thank you for the work you do every day to bring solutions to the climate crisis. I know that it’s daunting and sometimes feels hopeless, but I know that I feel better being on the side of history that’s trying to leave the world in a better place for our future generations.