Evanston technical committee begins rulemaking for Healthy Buildings Ordinance; staff flags $10.4M DOE grant and data work

Evanston’s Health and Buildings Technical Committee convened its first meeting to begin rulemaking under the city’s recently passed Healthy Buildings Ordinance, hear staff briefings on responsibilities and data needs, and set near‑term priorities including a utility briefing and a review of benchmarking data.

Kara Pratt, Evanston’s chief sustainability and resilience officer, opened the session by describing the work ahead as “a long journey through the rulemaking process for the Healthy Buildings Ordinance.” Pratt told members the committee’s duties under the ordinance include developing implementation rules, recommending final and interim performance standards, defining net‑zero accounting and the use of offsets, and helping design outreach and alternative compliance pathways.

Pratt announced the city had received a $10,400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy intended to support staffing and implementation work, saying the “bulk of those dollars would go to audits at what we define as equity priority buildings.” She added that the grant’s status with…