Improved building codes are a critical element in the development of a more sustainable built environment. Improved energy efficiency codes for residential and commercial buildings begin with a model International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) developed every three years by the International Code Council. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia adopt the model IECC with a three-year lag time. But adoption is not automatic; each state has to vote to upgrade its building code.

Many of the steps to improve new building energy efficiency increase initial building costs, but they pay for themselves - often many times over - in reduced energy costs over the life of the building. Contractors have incentives to keep construction costs low. Building owners and users receive the benefits of higher energy efficiency, but rarely consider energy efficiency in their purchase decisions. Building codes may seem like an arcane topic, but they are critical in setting a base level of energy efficiency for new construction.         

States are currently adopting the 2009 IECC, which achieves a 30% improvement in energy efficiency compared with the 2006 code. On December 14, the North Carolina Building Code Council, the agency that sets building codes for our state, voted to adopt the 2009 IECC for commercial buildings. However, they voted for changes that will achieve only a 15% improvement in the energy efficiency of new homes. At a future meeting the Council will consider incentives for builders who go beyond the code minimum.

The Council also voted to allow homebuilders to offset the projected cost of the energy efficiency improvements with $3000 worth of savings on safety requirements to be selected from a list of 20 current code requirements, changes that will have to be voted on at a future meeting. Critics of the Council's actions have questioned both the projected cost of the energy efficiency improvements and the concept of trading off safety and energy efficiency requirements. Also, there is no indication that the Council considered the energy cost savings to homeowners over the life of the home.    

On October 27 and 28, the International Code Council met in Charlotte for its annual meeting and final action hearings to vote on the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code. BRSI's Regional Energy Action Council (REAC) obtained funding from The Energy Foundation and Progress Energy to enable delegates from North Carolina colleges and universities  to attend the meeting. REAC also provided educational material to familiarize the delegates with the issues. The delegates we funded were among the more than 500 meeting attendees who voted on dozens of questions and ultimately approved a 2012 IECC that will achieve a 30% increase in energy efficiency over the 2009 IECC.

We hope that in 2015, when North Carolina adopts its new building codes for energy efficiency, it will adopt the 2012 IECC for both commercial and residential buildings, and without tradeoffs regarding safety or other building requirements. 

 
  Biofuels

Biofuels offer the potential for sustainable liquid fuels to replace our current dependence on petroleum-based fuels for transportation. They offer a quicker route to sustainability than electric cars, which depend on a massive infrastructure change to renewable electricity. Large amounts of bio-ethanol and biodiesel are already being used, and all projections are for greater use in the future.

Biofuels can be made from crops, waste, bacteria, or algae. Some biofuels processes are highly sustainable, others offer modest or no improvement in sustainability. BRSI's January 24 Green Monday will feature speakers who are working on each of the four routes to biofuels. They will be asked to address three questions:

1. How does your process improve the sustainability of  transportation?
2. To what extent can your process be applied in Western North Carolina? 
3. How broadly can your process be applied globally?

Join us on January 24 from 3:00 - 5:00pm for what promises to be a lively and informative discussion.  Monthly Green Monday events take place at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Green Workforce Development

We do not have as many green jobs as we would like. What are the barriers to creating more green jobs and what can we do to remove those barriers? A panel of six speakers addressed these questions at December's Green Monday. A video of the session and copies of the visuals used by the speakers are available on the BRSI website (www.blueridgesustainability.org).

As a follow-up to the December Green Monday, BRSI is working with ABCCM, GO and other interested parties to develop a weatherization program for launch in 2011. 

According to Matt Raker, Director of the AdvantageGreen Program for AdvantageWest, despite the difficult economic times, clean energy grew 22% statewide in 2010, and sustainable agriculture was up 70% over 2002-2007. However, significant opportunities remain: Western North Carolina's energy imports are $3.17 billion/year and only 1% of our food is locally grown. Raker said that the approach to green job creation was train, train, train, but what is missing is green business skills; the ability to identify green business opportunities, then build a business around them to hire the green workforce. He described some of the activities AdvantageGreen has underway to help develop green businesses.

Heidi Reiber, Director of Research for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce's Economic Development Coalition (EDC), identified two barriers to creating "green" jobs. First is the challenging economic climate that companies have faced, although data from the past few months suggest that we may be entering better times. Second is identifying how many jobs are "green." There is no accepted definition of a "green" job, and many traditional jobs are being redefined in ways that would make them "green." Reiber closed with examples of support the EDC has provided companies that are developing green jobs and services.

Holly Jones, Executive Director of the YWCA of Asheville and Western North Carolina, discussed the challenges that women and people of color face in obtaining green jobs. She presented the results of a study conducted by the YWCA and Asheville Green Opportunities (GO), which surveyed 48 green businesses. Only 24% of the jobs in these companies were held by women, mostly office jobs, rather than onsite; 11% of the jobs were held by people of color.  Most of the businesses were small, 1-5 employees, but many were planning to hire next year adding 46 jobs net. Businesses complained about the lack of applications from women and people of color, but also said that most of their hiring was by word of mouth. Certifications were not important, but general job skills were.

Torin Kexel, Training Director for GO, talked about the weatherization apprenticeship program GO has developed, which in addition to providing specific weatherization skills, provides the general job skills that businesses identified as important in the YWCA/GO survey. These include basic carpentry, safety training, project management, customer relations and attitudes on the job. Torin pointed out that residents of low-income neighborhoods will potentially purchase weatherization services, that training these residents in weatherization is often the catalyst for people in their communities to invest in home energy efficiency, and that some of his trainees are starting their own green businesses.

According to Susan Garrett, Green Jobs Director for ABCCM, of the 66 graduates of their biofuels and weatherization training programs only 14 have been able to find green jobs. Since ABCCM has funding to train an additional 150 weatherization technicians, Garrett proposed a program to employ these people. Her vision is to weatherize 5500 homes per year through 2015. Such a program would generate $62 million for contractors and $17 million in wages for new workers. It would save home owners an average of $413/year in energy costs.

Jon Snover, Director of the Global Institute for Sustainability Technologies at AB Tech, said that lack of leadership at the national level is causing the U.S. to fall behind in green technology. In the future every job will have to be a green job and every organization will have to include sustainability in its business plan. AB Tech is offering a two-year degree in sustainability technology and is also working to help green entrepreneurs develop their ideas to the level needed to seek partners and funding.  What AB Tech needs is input from companies on training needs for both today's jobs and the jobs of the future.