The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has announced best practice standards to advance more resilient and energy efficient buildings across the state.

The release of the NYStretch Energy Code – 2020 (2020 NYStretch) toolkit is expected to aid municipalities interested in voluntarily adopting higher efficiency standards for new and renovated building construction projects.

The new standards are hoped to broaden the adoption of energy efficiency measures by increasing awareness of, and helping to set minimum energy performance requirements for, designing, constructing, and renovating buildings. About 30 percent of the state’s overall emissions come from on-site fuel combustion in buildings and 15 percent from electricity generation.

Communities that adopt and implement NYStretch are expected to be able to accelerate energy cost savings, reduce emissions from buildings, improve resiliency from power disruptions, and lower utility bills for consumers.

According to an announcement sent to the press, NYStretch is expected to provide savings of roughly 11 percent in energy costs over the model energy codes that will be the basis for the 2020 Energy Conservation Construction Code of New York State (2020 ECCC-NYS), with simple paybacks typically in the range of six to 12 years.

To assist interested municipalities in adopting 2020 NYStretch, NYSERDA is making available its toolkit to aid municipalities interested in voluntarily adopting and enacting NYStretch as a local requirement. The toolkit includes one-page fact sheets describing NYStretch and its benefits, a step-by-step adoption guide with model resolution language, estimated benefits and costs of meeting NYStretch for the most common new building construction projects, and frequently asked questions with responses. The toolkit is intended to aid municipalities in adopting higher efficiency standards in new and renovated construction projects in their community.

In addition to the toolkit, NYSERDA is planning to provide direct, hands-on support to municipalities throughout the adoption and implementation process. Communities are expected to have access to staff and consultant support and trainings for code officials and building professionals.

The recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates nine gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035, six gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025, and three gigawatts of energy storage by 2030.

The CLCPA also directs New York State agencies and authorities to collaborate with stakeholders to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and aim to invest 40 percent of clean energy and energy efficiency program resources to benefit disadvantaged communities.

More about NYSERDA’s programs and funding opportunities is available on their website.