What is Building performance standards (BPS)?
A building performance standard (BPS) is a law requiring existing buildings to reach set energy use or emissions targets by fixed dates, with penalties or alternative payments for buildings that miss them.
Who a BPS covers
Cities and states adopt these standards for existing buildings above a floor area threshold, usually commercial and multifamily, and often apply them to government-owned buildings first. Each law chooses its own metric: site energy use intensity (EUI), an ENERGY STAR score, or greenhouse gas emissions per square foot. Most sit on top of an annual benchmarking requirement that was already in place.
How thresholds compare across programs
- New York City Local Law 97: buildings over 25,000 square feet, emissions limits from 2024 that tighten in 2030, and a penalty of $268 per metric ton of CO2e over the limit, per the NYC Department of Buildings.
- Denver: EUI targets for buildings of 25,000 square feet and larger, with no building required to cut weather-normalized site EUI by more than 42 percent from its baseline, per the Energize Denver rules.
- Washington State: Tier 1 buildings over 50,000 square feet meet an EUI target on dates from June 1, 2026 to June 1, 2028 by size, per the Department of Commerce.
- Washington DC: privately owned buildings over 50,000 square feet and District-owned buildings over 10,000 square feet in a first cycle ending December 31, 2026, per DOEE.
Seeing the gap before the compliance year closes
A BPS verdict rests on twelve months of consumption, so the number worth watching during the year is the distance to target. aQ EnergySmart compares each building with a regression baseline that accounts for cooling and heating degree days, and rate configuration converts the difference into money. A portfolio team can then rank which buildings to work on first.