Codes to Cleaner Buildings

The study finds that building energy codes in the U.S. are associated with a roughly 10% decrease in primary energy use per housing unit and a 16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per average code household. These results are consistent with, and potentially higher than, standard engineering simulation estimates. The analysis also identifies a fuel-switching effect, where codes encourage a shift toward natural gas and away from other fuels like fuel oil, likely due to code provisions allowing tradeoffs between building envelope efficiency and high-efficiency equipment.

• Building energy codes are associated with a decrease of approximately 10% in primary energy use per housing unit compared to households not built under these codes. In 2008, these codes are estimated to have reduced total U.S. residential primary energy consumption by 1.3%.
• The implementation of building energy codes has led to a shift in fuel choice, specifically increasing the share of energy derived from natural gas while decreasing the use of other fuels, most notably fuel oil.
• The combined effect of energy savings and fuel-switching resulted in an estimated 16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for an average code household. In aggregate, this contributed to an approximately 1.8% reduction in total U.S. residential building emissions in 2008.
• The empirical results from the econometric analysis suggest that standard engineering estimates of energy savings are reasonable and may actually be lower than the actual realized savings.
• The study notes that the 'performance pathway' for code compliance allowed tradeoffs between the building envelope and equipment efficiency, which encouraged the use of natural gas and electric heat pumps but may result in less efficient building envelopes over the long term.

APA

Deason, J., & Hobbs, A. (2011). Codes to Cleaner Buildings. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Codes-to-Cleaner-Buildings-Effectiveness-of-US-Building-Energy-Codes.pdf

Chicago

Deason, Jeff, and Andrew Hobbs. Codes to Cleaner Buildings. Climate Policy Initiative, 2011. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Codes-to-Cleaner-Buildings-Effectiveness-of-US-Building-Energy-Codes.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Deason |first1=Jeff |last2=Hobbs |first2=Andrew |title=Codes to Cleaner Buildings |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=September 2011 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Codes-to-Cleaner-Buildings-Effectiveness-of-US-Building-Energy-Codes.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{deason2011codes, author = {Deason, Jeff and Hobbs, Andrew}, title = {{Codes to Cleaner Buildings}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2011}, month = sep, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Codes-to-Cleaner-Buildings-Effectiveness-of-US-Building-Energy-Codes.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }