ASHRAE has introduced the first of a series of planned decarbonization guidance documents in sync with a new online gateway to a vast range of resources related to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the built environment. ASHRAE’s Task Force on Building Decarbonization is leading the effort, but working with prominent energy management, sustainability and standards setting bodies throughout North America.

Kent Peterson, chair of the eight-member task force, explains that its mission is to help “accelerate the transition from commitment to action” through the development of technical guidance that augments ASHRAE’s widely referenced standards, 90.1 for energy performance and 189.1 for green building design. The first new publication focuses on building performance standards (BPS), offering advice for policymakers who may be adopting targets and building owners, managers and service providers who will need to comply.

“We hope this guide will establish some much needed consistency across the buildings industry to set these types of goals and targets, and then work toward meeting them,” says Harry Bergmann, manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office and a contributor to the guide.

“At a time when we must use every avenue available to us to decarbonize our world, we believe BPS policies are one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox, and one that stands to have the highest impact,” note Adam Hinge and Andrea Mengual, co-chairs of the 21-member working group behind the effort.

Toby Lau, codes and standards principal with B.C. Hydro’s Power Smart division was also a member of the working group, while Vancouver is highlighted within the guidance document as one of a still small number of jurisdictions to have enacted building performance standards.

Pending decarbonization guidance documents will cover topics such as: site energy use; life cycle perspectives, including embodied carbon; heat pumps; decarbonization in health care facilities; and grid-interactive buildings.