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Co-op and Condo Green Retrofits Are Good for the Environment — and the Economy.

“Especially in New York City, buildings, particularly existing buildings, are one of our big challenges,” Uchenna Bright says. “Decarbonization and energy efficiency are still very much a huge market within the city, and there’s still a lot more work to be done there.”

Some concerned building code freeze could leave new builds in NC decades out of date

Last week, the state legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that puts a freeze on some residential building code updates, impacting energy efficiency and structural safety standards of new homes for years to come. “Based on the expert analysis that we’ve seen, the $20,000 estimate was pretty overinflated, and undersold the benefits […]

North Carolina kills effort to make its building code energy-efficient

Building codes are a vital tool for states to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. But in a drastic move, North Carolina state lawmakers have just made it illegal for the state to overhaul its residential building codes until 2031. “Based on independent analysis, adopting these standards is just a win across the board,” Zach Amittay, Southeast advocate […]

HB 488 Veto Overturned – “Eight Years of Stagnation” for North Carolina Building Codes

North Carolina misses chance for cleaner, more affordable, more resilient residential buildings RALEIGH, NC — The North Carolina General Assembly overrode Governor Cooper’s veto of HB 488 last night, blocking progress toward cleaner, more affordable, more resilient residential buildings in the state for nearly the next decade. The bill effectively freezes the state’s residential building […]

North Carolina lawmakers override veto of bill that delays building code updates

Zach Amittay, Southeast Advocate with E2, a nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors:  “This decision from the General Assembly means eight years of stagnation for North Carolina’s progress toward healthier, more affordable housing. Residents of new builds deserve to reap the benefits of more efficient and resilient homes with better air quality and lower […]

E2 Northeast Alert: Better Buildings in New York

Building Opportunity: Chicago

The Economic Benefits of Advancing Clean Building Policies in the Windy City

Summary

Chicago is home to more than 12,000 workers engaged in work directly related to making Chicago’s building sector cleaner and more efficient. This workforce includes workers who replace old insulation in the attics of single-family homes, fit new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in commercial buildings, and install electric stoves and air source heat pumps in homes and buildings.

To better understand how electrifying and making Chicago’s buildings more energy efficient would impact the city’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into Chicago’s overall clean buildings employment data.

Building Decarbonization and Electrification Employment by Value Chain, 2021

Policies Matter

Policies that support electrifying and making Chicago’s buildings more energy efficient can create job opportunities and result in substantial economic and climate benefits for Chicago residents. With the Inflation Reduction Act incentives creating an unprecedented opportunity for cities, states, and customers to advance clean energy and building retrofits, the time to act is now. The City of Chicago must pass the following by early 2023:

• Carbon Emissions Standard for New Construction: Adopt the proposed Clean Buildings, Clean Air ordinance that sets a carbon emissions standard to prohibit fossil fuel powered appliances in new commercial and residential construction and gut renovations of existing buildings. The ordinance phases in requirements starting with lower-rise buildings in mid-2024 and for taller buildings by end of 2024 and includes exceptions for select uses like industrial processes, hospitals, and commercial cooking.

DOWNLOAD

Download the complete report at at this link.

BACKGROUND

This analysis of the United States Energy and Employment Report (USEER) was produced by BW Research for E2. The USEER survey includes workers who spend a plurality of their time working to improve the energy efficiency of a building, factory, residence, etc., without regard to the type of energy source used—including those workers who may still may still be installing high-efficiency gas technologies. As buildings transition from gas to all-electric these jobs will transition with them, as the skills required for both technologies are highly transferable.

Chicago Building Decarbonization 2023

Building Opportunity: New Jersey

The Jobs and Economic Benefits of Decarbonizing
Buildings Across the Garden State

SUMMARY

The Garden State is home to nearly 33,000 people who are employed in work directly related to constructing high-performance, climate-friendly, decarbonized buildings capable of running on 100% clean power. The work they engage in includes activities like installing electric induction stoves in kitchens in Hoboken, replacing old insulation in drafty attics of single-family homes in Hunterdon County, or fitting new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in offices in industrial parks along the Jersey Shore.

To better understand how decarbonizing New Jersey’s buildings is impacting the state’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into the state’s overall building decarbonization employment data.

By looking at five employment areas — technology; value chain; residential and commercial sector employment; electrification, building envelope and other energy efficiency; and specific occupational analysis —we found that:

• Northern New Jersey is home to the highest concentration of the state’s building decarbonization jobs but every other region in the state is home to thousands as well.
• More than half of New Jersey’s building decarbonization jobs were in construction-related fields, which can include tasks like erecting scaffolding and other temporary construction site structures, loading or unloading building materials, operating on-site equipment, and digging trenches and earthworks to prepare construction sites.
• Statewide, there are more than 21,000 workers involved in residential building decarbonization; another 16,000 work in commercial building decarbonization, with some overlap between the two. This suggests broad opportunities and transferable skills for people who work on everything from single-story ranch houses and barns, to high-rise office buildings in urban centers.
• In 2020, the average annual wages for five select occupations within building decarbonization in New Jersey ranged from $56,700 (for workers who are involved in insulation, floors, ceilings and walls) to $75,800 (plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters). Introduction
• The education required for entry-level jobs and the on-the-job training that workers receive varies depending on the occupation. This suggests a wide range of opportunities for workers with various experience levels, backgrounds and education.

Job Highlights by Technology, 2020

Wage, Education, and Training Highlights by Occupation, 2020

The wage data shows how significant of an opportunity building decarbonization represents to workers in New Jersey and to the overall economy. In five of the most common building decarbonization occupations, average annual wages in New Jersey range from $56,700 to $75,800.

Demographic Highlights by Race and Ethnicity, 2020

The majority of workers within each occupation in the state are white, followed by Black and Asian. Hispanic or Latino workers make up the majority of insulation workers and construction laborers in New Jersey and are approximately one-fifth of the overall workforce in the state.

DOWNLOAD

Download the complete report at at this link.

BACKGROUND

This is the first Building Opportunity: New Jersey report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after it was abandoned in 2017.

Building Opportunity: New York

The Jobs, Economic and Equity Benefits of Decarbonizing
and Electrifying Buildings Across the Empire State

Summary

New York State is home to more than 120,000 workers engaged in work directly related to decarbonizing and electrifying buildings across the state. This includes work like installing electric induction stoves in apartment buildings on Staten Island, replacing old insulation in the attics of single-family homes in Plattsburgh and fitting new pipes for geothermal heating and cooling systems in commercial buildings in Rochester.

To better understand how decarbonizing and electrifying New York’s buildings would impact the state’s labor market, E2 took a deeper dive into the state’s overall building decarbonization and electrification employment data.

By looking at five employment areas — technology; value chain; residential and commercial energy efficiency; electrification, building envelope and other energy efficiency; and a specific occupational analysis — we found that:

• In New York State, building decarbonization and electrification employment is 2.2 times greater than employment in fossil fuels as they relate to buildings.
• While New York City, Long Island and the mid-Hudson Valley are home to the majority of the state’s building decarbonization and electrification jobs, Western New York, the Finger Lakes, Central New York, the Southern Tier, the North Country and every other region in the state is home to thousands of building decarbonization workers, and all counties and regions stand to gain from stronger building decarbonization and electrification policies.
• Statewide, there are 73,000 workers involved in residential building decarbonization; nearly 48,000 work helping to decarbonize commercial buildings, suggesting broad opportunities across the state’s building stock, from ranch houses to apartments and high-rise office buildings to commercial buildings and industrial parks.
• In 2020, average annual wages for five occupations within building decarbonization and electrification in New York State ranged from $48,800 (for workers who are involved in insulation, floors, ceilings and walls) to $81,200 (electricians)
• The education required for entry-level jobs and the on-the-job training received varies
  depending on the occupation, suggesting a broad range of opportunities for workers
  across New York State.

Building Decarbonization and Electrification Employment by Technology, 2020

Jobs Growth Potential 

While 120,000 workers represent a sizable segment of New York State’s current overall labor force, the number of people who work on building decarbonization and electrification is expected to dramatically increase in the coming decades. By 2050, over 400,000 New Yorkers could be expected to work in building decarbonization and electrification — nearly four times as many as today.

Policy Leading the Way

Power sector policies have helped put New York at the center of the nation’s rapidly growing clean energy industry. In 2019 the state enacted the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which sets targets and timelines for economy-wide emissions reductions, requires at least 35 percent of climate action benefits directly impact environmental justice and disadvantaged communities, and establishes the New York Climate Action Council (CAC) to oversee the efforts required to meet these nation-leading climate and equity commitments.

The state is already on track to meet CLCPA goals of sourcing 70 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy by 2030, and making it 100 percent emissions-free by 2040. With buildings now representing a significant portion of economy-wide emissions, additional policies that could help equitably accelerate this shift include: better building codes; standards that help make appliances and other equipment found in residences and commercial buildings more efficient; statewide legislation that helps modernize new buildings; facilitating more disclosure of how buildings consume energy; eliminating fossil fuel subsidies while aligning incentives with state and local climate goals; and scaling up green, affordable housing.

Credit: NYSERDA.

DOWNLOAD

Download the complete report at at this link.

BACKGROUND

This is the first Building Opportunity: New York report produced by E2 based on analysis of the USEER, which was first released by the DOE in 2016. E2 was an original proponent of the DOE producing the USEER and was a partner on the reports produced by the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) and National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) after the Trump administration abandoned it in 2017.

Energy costs hit low-income people hardest. Policy experts say the country needs to be more efficient.

And employers are hard up for hiring to complete the jobs they have. There are more than 2.1 million energy efficiency jobs in the U.S., according to the report out this week from E2, a national, nonpartisan group of energy investors and E4TheFuture, a nonprofit organization… …Of the 12 million residences in the U.S., 80% are […]

Business support for ambitious building electrification standards in 2022 Title 24 Building Code

As members and supporters of E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs), we are writing in support of the direction of the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Title 24 proposal and strongly encourage further ambition