Sample Policy, Program Documents and RFP Library

NASEO tracks key funding opportunities from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, and grant offerings by federal agencies that may be leveraged by building owners, state agencies, and local entities to advance efforts to efficiently electrify and improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings. NASEO has compiled several resources that are regularly updated that capture the latest updates and deadlines for relevant funding opportunities across all energy sectors (including buildings), along with eligible uses, eligible entities, individual award amounts, and more.

• White House Guidebook on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
• White House Guidebook on the Inflation Reduction Act
• HSEO Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Tracker
• State-Based Funding from the Interagency Working Group on Coal & Power Plant Communities & Economic Revitalization
• Selected Federal Funding and Technical Assistance Sources for Building Upgrades
• DOE Clean Energy Infrastructure Program and Funding Announcements
• Clean Energy Tax Credits for Consumers
• IRA Program and Tax Incentive Summary from Rocky Mountain Institute
• Investing in America: Climate Action Funding Resource Guide (US EPA)

• NASEO's Sample RFP for Southwest Energy Codes Field Study
  NASEO published this RFP for a qualified organization to perform two state-wide residential energy code field studies in Colorado and Nevada as part of a grant award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office. This RFP defines the scope of work for the field study, which focused on newly constructed single-family homes and required field observations on key specifications, including envelope tightness, fenestration, wall insulation, ceiling insulation, lighting, foundation insulation, and duct tightness. The RFP also details contractor qualifications, with evaluative criteria on experience conducting past field studies, ability to obtain high quality and accurate data, and ability to meet requirements in the scope of work in a timely manner.

• Clean Energy Communities
  The Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program is administered by the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) and incentivizes municipalities in New York to implement clean energy and energy efficiency projects from a pre- approved list of “high-impact actions”, based on which they can pursue grant funding and recognition opportunities.
• Massachusetts Green Communities
  The Green Communities Designation and Grant Program was created by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and designates a municipality a "Green Community" after they meet five criteria, upon which they can access grants to implement clean energy projects in public buildings and facilities. All municipalities, regardless of Green Community recognition status, can access technical support from DOER on conducting energy efficiency improvements.
  • Massachusetts DOER Municipal Energy Technical Assistance Grant Program 
    • In 2020, the DOER Green Communities Division made $250,000 available for municipalities to contract independent third parties for assistance with developing and managing energy projects. 
  • DOER: Green Communities Technical Assistance for Massachusetts Municipalities Request for Response  
    • A request for response published by the DOER during the first program year of Green Communities that solicits a qualified vendor to help municipalities meet Green Community criteria by performing initial site visits and developing action plans.
  • Regional Energy Planning Assistance Grant Program
    • In subsequent years of the Green Communities Program, DOER has offered Energy Planning Assistance (REPA) Grants to eligible Technical Assistance Agencies including Regional Planning Agencies to augment municipal capacity necessary to: 1) participate in the Green Communities Designation and Grant Program; and 2) advance clean energy projects in under-resourced municipalities. Linked is a bid solicitation for the 2021 REPA program year.
• Illinois Energy Now Trade Ally Program
  The Illinois Energy Now Trade Ally Program, which ran between 2012 and 2015, developed a network of industry experts and private energy service providers to train on statewide incentives and energy efficiency technology. The program then facilitated relationships between the public sector and private energy service providers and fostered competition through a recognition program for service providers that performed the most public sector energy efficiency upgrade projects. This program was created through a State Energy Program Competitive award in 2012 ($427,500).
• Focus on Energy and Wisconsin Utility's RFP for Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program Implementer
  Focus on Energy, an agency that offers resources, financial incentives, and implements energy projects on behalf of utilities across Wisconsin, released this request for proposal (RFP) for an experienced implementer for their Multifamily Energy Efficiency Program. The RFP seeks program designs that support the needs of multifamily building owners, property managers, and tenants; that target the affordable housing market; and that address the multifamily sector's unique "split incentive" of energy efficiency benefits between building owners and tenants.
• Michigan Battle of Buildings
  In its eighth year, the Michigan Battle of the Buildings is an annual program that recognizes commercial (including multifamily homes) and industrial buildings for reducing energy consumption and implementing energy efficient practices. Building owners benchmark their building energy use with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and by participating in the program, join a network of building owners and operators, energy service and product providers, and financing institutions to exchange ideas.

• Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) City Efficiency Leaders Project and White Papers on Best Practices

  Benchmarking City Properties: City of Houston Case Study

  This case study summarizes the City of Houston’s efforts around benchmarking 10 million square feet of its city-owned building space, across approximately 400 properties, using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The City uses the benchmarking data to prioritize buildings for energy retrofits; track progress of retrofit projects; inform the design of behavioral energy use programs; and participate in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Building Challenge, an annual recognition program for high performance buildings. The City has a dedicated benchmarking team that gathers data from a variety of supporting offices, particularly the General Services Department, Human Resources and Administration and Regulatory Affairs, which provides data on monthly utility bills and usage, building operating hours, square footage, ownership, and occupancy, among other required inputs for benchmarking in Portfolio Manager.

  Revolving Funds for City Efficiency Projects: City of San Antonio Case Study

  This case study summarizes Revolving Funds for City Efficiency Projects in San Antonio, Texas, which has helped the City reduce its annual $34 million utility budget through facilities retrofits. The Revolving Fund was established using $4.6 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2011 and has since been used for 398 total municipal retrofits. This has resulted in improved energy performance across the City’s building portfolio and has increased the number of buildings eligible for ENERGY STAR Certification. The program leverages ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to establish building performance baselines for a comprehensive measurement and verification process of savings attributable to the retrofit. Portfolio Manager savings reports and in-house tracking spreadsheets are also used for tracking energy savings and avoided costs in completed projects.

  El Paso’s Energy Savings Challenge

  This case study summarizes El Paso’s Behavioral Energy Savings Challenge, an effort by the El Paso Office of Sustainability to reduce municipal energy consumption through cultural shifts within city building maintenance and operations. This program was deployed in library and fire department buildings and required benchmarking to develop energy performance baselines for participating buildings. There were initially significant delays to accessing whole-building monthly utility data benchmarking due to a process of requesting each month’s data, which was eventually resolved when the Facilities and Fleet Management department created a shared drive for regularly uploading utility bills and the Office of Sustainability could capture the data and run analytics through Excel spreadsheets. This process could be streamlined by using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in future years, which offers combined capabilities of energy use data analytics and automated utility data sharing.

  Optimizing Energy and Water Management in Local Governments

  This case study looks across six of Texas’ major cities: Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio, at the departments and governmental entities responsible for energy and water efficiency. This statewide report finds that in most cities, more than one governmental entity is in charge of building energy and water efficiency, indicating the need to break down siloes between departments. The report also points out that several cities use ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager as their main way of sharing data across departments and managing energy data. However, Portfolio Manager is also used in a myriad of energy management approaches that also involve configurations of Excel spreadsheets and third party software platforms. This implicates the need to assert statewide best practices and coordinate the approach on energy data management between cities.

  Keeping PACE in Texas: PACE in a Box

  This toolkit was developed for Texas counties and municipalities to create Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Loan Programs that enable commercial and industrial property owners to obtain low-cost, long-term loans for energy and water efficiency facility improvements. This toolkit promotes the use of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in the program application process, where PACE project property owners would use Portfolio Manager to collect energy and water use (across all fuel types) for the first year of a PACE project. The use of Portfolio Manager as an empirical data collection tool also helps with the annual reporting and review process, where projected savings estimates reported to the PACE program administrator should be verified by actual energy and water savings. The PACE program administrator could also make the annually reported data available to the local government accompanied by recommendations for regional and/or statewide policy or program improvements.

   

   

Existing Toolkits and Resource Libraries

To access technical assistance on implementing building performance standards or benchmarking policies, please contact Caterina Hatcher and Brendan Hall from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at (statelocal@energystar.gov).

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Toolkit
  A Toolkit maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that offers key resources, policy considerations, and strategies for using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager when implementing state and local benchmarking and building performance standards.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Resources
  The full inventory of EPA's tools and resources for benchmarking policies and building performance standards
• U.S. Department of Energy Building Performance Standard Resource Library
  A comprehensive list of resources from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on building performance standards, including software tools for program implementation and guidance on target-setting.
• Building Performance Standards | Institute for Market Transformation
  A comprehensive list of resources from IMT for designing a city or statewide building performance standards.
• Model Ordinance for Building Performance Standards | Institute for Market Transformation
  A model ordinance for cities and states to adopt and customize in designing their own standards, which includes suggested administrative structures, performance metrics, compliance thresholds, and program deliverables.
• Comparison of U.S. Building Performance Standards | Institute for Market Transformation
  A matrix of all existing building performance standards in cities and states across the U.S.
• Comparison of U.S. Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking and Transparency Policies | Institute for Market Transformation
  A matrix of all existing commercial building energy benchmarking and transparency policies in cities and states across the U.S.
• NASEO Benchmarking and Building Performance Standards Policy Page
  A NASEO webpage that includes links to benchmarking ordinance and building performance standard development resources, lists existing state and local policies and programs, and provides policy design guidance.  

Training and Task Force Development

• Notice of Funding Availability - High-Performance Building Technical Assistance, Training, & Capacity Building | Washington, DC District Department of Energy and Environment
  Notice of funding issued by Washington, D.C. DOEE soliciting a third-party nonprofit organization to offer training, capacity building, and technical assistance to building owners, managers, and other building sector stakeholders towards complying with the city’s building energy performance standards program.
• Notice of Funding Availability - High Performance Building Innovation & Training Hub | Washington, DC District Department of Energy and Environment
  Notice of funding issued by Washington, D.C. DOEE soliciting a third-party organization to develop a hub or platform that captures examples from leading cities with high performance building initiatives and connect building sector representatives to collaboration, innovation, capacity building, training, and technical assistance opportunities.

Determining Final and/or Interim Performance Standards

• Understanding and Choosing Metrics for Building Performance Standards
  An EPA white paper that provides a framework and supporting analysis to help policymakers understand key differences among building performance metrics and select the best to apply to their jurisdiction’s building performance standards.
• Request for Proposals for consultants to develop energy utilization index targets for the commercial building energy performance standard. | Washington Department of Commerce
  Washington State Department of Commerce issued a request for proposal to determine the EUI-based benchmarking target for each property type subject to compliance under the Washington Clean Buildings Performance Standard.
• Required Retrocomissioning Scope | Boulder, CO Building Performance Ordinance
  Establishing retrocommissioning as a baseline energy saving measure, the building performance standard in Boulder, CO defines the required scope of retrocommissioning if not conducted by a local energy utility.

Program Assessment

• Notice of Funding Availability - Pathways to DC Building Energy Performance Standards | Washington, DC District Department of Energy and Environment
  Notice of funding issued by Washington, D.C. Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE) soliciting a third-party organization to conduct a cost benefit study on the impacts of the city’s building energy performance standards program as mandated by the Clean Energy Omnibus Act of 2018.
• Request for Proposals - Clean Buildings Performance Standard Expansion Law Small Business Economic Impact Statement
  The Department of Commerce in Washington State expanded their building energy performance standard (BEPS) in 2022 to require compliance from commercial buildings between 20,000 and 50,000 square feet and multifamily buildings larger than 20,000 square feet. This RFP was published to solicit a vendor to prepare a small business economic impact statement (SBEIS) for building owners newly subject to compliance with the BEPS. The SBEIS is meant to compare the cost of compliance for small businesses with energy cost savings and emissions reductions attributable to the BEPS, while also detailing how the Department of Commerce can involve small businesses in rulemaking and minimize the costs of compliance.

K-12 Public Schools

• Kentucky School Energy Managers Project Case Study
  This case study summarizes the Kentucky School Energy Managers Project (SEMP), which used funding from the State Energy Program and partnerships with local investor-owned utilities to deploy 49 energy managers to implement energy management plans and identify energy savings opportunities across most school districts in Kentucky.
  • Kentucky School Boards Association and School District Sample Memorandum of Agreement – School Energy Managers Project
    This customizable memorandum of agreement was signed between each school district participating in SEMP and the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA) to develop a partnership for administering the energy manager program.
  • Kentucky SEP ARRA Final Project Overview – School Energy Managers Project
    This report describes the activities undertaken with grant funds towards SEMP, which included recruiting school district participants, codifying and advertising energy manager job description and performance requirements, conducting various trainings for the final energy manager candidates, and monthly reporting from energy managers on implementation of the ENERGY STAR 7-Step energy management process.
  • Kentucky SEP ARRA Final Project Goals – School Energy Managers Project
    This report presents the goals of SEMP and describes tasks accomplished under each goal. Goals of the program included creating a statewide network of energy manager professionals, supporting and coaching the energy manager workforce, introducing best energy practices for the energy managers, and developing and implementing procedures for timely reporting.
  • Kentucky SEP ARRA Final Project Partnerships and Regions – School Energy Managers Project
    This report provides details on the number of energy managers, school districts, and district partnerships engaged through the administration of SEMP, in addition to capturing a map of all participating K-12 school districts (144 out of Kentucky’s total 174 school districts).
• Rhode Island Municipal Energy Management Services Provider Solicitation
  This is an RFP document issued by the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources (the State Energy Office) soliciting professional energy management services to support municipalities and school districts throughout Rhode Island. For more information, please contact Nathan Cleveland, Programming Services Officer at the Rhode Island Office of Energy Offices (nathan.cleveland@energy.ri.gov).
• School Uplift - Energy Efficiency Grants - TVA EnergyRight
  Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned electric utility, offers the School Uplift program that provides grant funding towards energy upgrades in under-resourced schools and offers energy management training to faculty, staff, and students on energy efficiency and conservation practices. The State of Tennessee has been a key partner in School Uplift, providing matching grants through the Energy Efficient Schools Initiative fund since the program's pilot.

All Public Buildings

• West Virginia Benchmarking and Transparency Initiative
  In 2018, the West Virginia Office of Energy, funded by a USDOE Competitive SEP Award, began a statewide Benchmarking and Transparency Initiative, using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and develop a comprehensive building inventory that led to the unanimous passing of HB 2667: Energy Savings in Public Buildings. This bill sets the state's first energy reduction goal of 25 percent by 2030, establishes a state benchmarking and disclosure policy and calls for a comprehensive performance contracting program. This initiative engages a cohort of agency stakeholders to benchmark state and municipal buildings, as well as university and high school staff and students to benchmark all K-12 school and higher education buildings.
• Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Local Climate Action Plan and Shared Energy Manager Program
  The Pennsylvania DEP offers the Local Climate Action Program (LCAP), an SEP-funded initiative that connects and trains local governments with students from Penn State University to collaboratively develop greenhouse gas emissions inventories and identify climate-related vulnerabilities on behalf of the local government. This collaborative effort offers a unique professional development opportunity for the students and results in the publication of a climate action plan for the municipality, which also then qualifies the locality to access free assistance from shared energy managers (third party engineering and energy professionals contracted by the state) to begin implementing energy efficiency improvement measures.

EV Infrastructure Programs

• EV States Clearinghouse
  The EV States Clearinghouse is a one-stop shop for state agencies as they plan for and implement EV infrastructure programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and includes example EV infrastructure RFIs and RFPs from the states. The Clearinghouse is a password-protected site for states only; state agencies may register for a free account.