CARI’s #1 priority bill is S0091/H5493, the Building Decarbonization Act. Buildings account for almost 50% of emissions in RI if you account for heating, cooling, cooking, and electricity, yet they are the only major emissions sector with no plan for reduction. We need to speak up and tell our legislators to prioritize this bill to ensure it gets voted on this session.
Send a letter, call your reps–every bit helps! We drafted a letter already: follow this link!
Emissions from buildings affect everyone. In addition to accelerating climate change, they pollute the air we all breathe, leading to conditions like higher rates of childhood asthma. However, neither the legislature nor agencies have taken the action needed for addressing these building emissions and we are behind on our targets to meet the Act on Climate.
Source: ec4-building-energy-report.pdf
The Building Decarbonization Act calls for the following:
- Building benchmarking and performance improvement
- Electric-ready new construction
In this Act, building benchmarking would collect and analyze energy usage from the largest buildings in RI–over 25,000 square feet. For reference, the average home in Rhode Island is 1,688 square feet. This data would then be used to develop informed standards for these buildings to reduce their emissions.
Benchmarking is already in progress in Providence, and is a common practice throughout the building industry:
- Seven states including Massachusetts and many cities and towns have already acted on building decarbonization.
- Many large companies, universities, and hospitals already track building emissions for their own net zero goals, and it is an easy lift to share this data.
These pioneers have proven that benchmarking is easy, inexpensive, and can provide long-term financial and environmental savings.
FAQ/Resources:
- Fact Sheet from 2024 by Green Energy Consumers Alliance and Acadia Center
- Fact Sheet from 2025 by Green Energy Consumers Alliance and The Nature Conservancy
- House Bill no.5493
- Senate Bill no.0091
- EC4 report on Building Energy Benchmarking and Performance Standards for Office of Energy Resources, February 2025
- Nature Conservancy FAQ on the Building Decarbonization Bill