The American Institute of Architects (AIA) commends the Biden Administration for developing the first-ever Federal Building Performance Standard, setting an ambitious goal to cut energy use and electrify equipment and appliances in 30 percent of the building space owned by the Federal government by 2030.

“The AIA supports the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Federal Building Performance Standard requiring agencies to cut energy use and electrify equipment and appliances to achieve lower emissions in 30 percent of their buildings by square footage by 2030,” said 2022 President of The American Institute of Architects Dan Hart, FAIA. “While there is still more work to do to decarbonize the building sector, the development of this standard is an important step for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the federal buildings sector.” 

As a complementary step, today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a proposed rulemaking to electrify new Federal buildings and Federal buildings undergoing major renovations. To be clear, AIA and its support for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) helped set the foundation for the federal government’s ability to achieve these new performance standards for buildings.

“AIA commends the Administration for the issuance of this new performance standard, which is the result of last year’s executive order requiring 100% carbon pollution-free electricity to power all government operations by 2030,” Hart added.  “It also requires the modernization of all federal buildings by ensuring that new building construction and major building retrofits increase efficiency, electrify systems, and strengthen sustainability. This is a welcome and valuable step in the right direction to further ensure sustainability for all buildings, federal or otherwise.”