Committee reviews building-performance standards study backed by U.S. Department of Energy

At a meeting of the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, Chairwoman Council Member Mika Owens invited city staff and outside experts to brief the committee on progress toward building benchmarking and building performance standards for Cincinnati.

The briefing centered on the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan goals — a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050 — and on a U.S. Department of Energy-funded project supporting four Ohio cities to design policies that would reduce emissions from the built environment. Rob McCracken, energy manager with the Office of Environment and Sustainability (OES), said "a little over 60% of emissions come from the built environment," and that BPS and benchmarking are tools the city is exploring to reduce those emissions.

The University of Cincinnati and partner organizations described the technical foundation and next steps. Amanda Webb, associate professor of architectural engineering at the University of Cincinnati, said the project team has assembled an "unprecedented" dataset of building energy use for Cincinnati, produced estimates of retrofit capital costs, selected data-management software, and drafted an implementation plan. Webb also said the work is part of a larger effort she described as the Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (Recce) project, and that "the City of Cincinnati was awarded a follow on $10,000,000 grant which will occur over 7 years to then, basically assist with implementation."

Allison Lindberg, director of building codes and policy at the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, explained the distinction between benchmarking and BPS: "benchmarking is essentially just looking at the energy consumption of an existing building over time," while a building performance standard "sets that performance target, and then it's up to the building owners and managers to take action to meet that target." Lindberg said benchmarking alone often produces modest savings as owners take low-cost actions, and that a full BPS can drive larger aggregate savings.

Wyatt King, director of the Greater Cincinnati 2030 District (hosted by Green Umbrella), described early outreach to property owners and managers: "Most of the folks that we're talking to have only a minimal familiarity with BPS... There is generally a great deal of curiosity about it." King said the 2030 District will convene a working group of roughly 30–40 stakeholders starting in June to provide feedback on policy options.

Committee members asked about outcomes in other cities, timelines and workforce impacts. Lindberg and Webb said early-adopter cities typically have a multi-year runway between policy passage and first compliance cycles (commonly three to five years), and that jurisdictions often pair technical assistance and incentives with compliance mechanisms. Webb said the project team has identified workforce roles that could grow under a BPS, including building operators, energy auditors, commissioning professionals and energy managers, and that training partnerships (for example at community colleges) are one way to prepare local labor.

Council Member Jeffries characterized the stakes: "we are in a climate crisis... if we accept that as the premise... 40% of our emissions [are] from buildings," and he noted the committee slide showing roughly 717 buildings above 50,000 square feet account for about 40% of Cincinnati's building-related emissions — a small group of properties that could yield large emissions reductions if targeted.

No ordinance or formal BPS policy was proposed or voted on at the meeting. Staff and partners presented design options and said council will later decide the policy scope (which buildings to include), metric (energy or emissions), targets and timeframes, and implementation mechanisms (incentives, exemptions for building types and the administrative home for the program).

Committee members asked about historic buildings and equity protections. Webb said jurisdictions generally have not exempted historic buildings and that keeping older buildings in productive use often requires upgrades rather than leaving them to decline; Lindberg noted other jurisdictions use support mechanisms or carve-outs for affordable housing. Speakers emphasized the plan to use stakeholder engagement and data scenarios to balance emissions impact, feasibility and equity.

The committee did not take formal action on BPS at the meeting; OES and project partners said they will continue stakeholder outreach, refine scenarios, and return to council with policy options informed by the statewide Recce network and the planned local working group.

The committee adjourned after the presentation and a brief Q&A.