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Building Energy Performance Standard Targets
The St. Louis Board of Aldermen unanimously passed and Mayor Krewson signed into law, St. Louis’s Building Energy Performance Standard (BEPS) in May 2020, making St. Louis the 4th jurisdiction in the country and the 1st in the Midwest to adopt this ambitious law to mandate significant reductions in building energy use.
The ordinance covers municipal, commercial, institutional and residential properties 50,000 square feet and larger. The standards will be set and published by May 4th, 2021. Most buildings will have four years to meet the standard (May 4, 2025). Qualified affordable housing buildings and houses of worship will have six years to meet the standard (May 4, 2027). One benefit of providing additional time for these building types is to allow owners to wrap energy upgrades into larger improvement projects at the time of mortgage refinance. Property owners will have the flexibility to decide what combination of physical or operational improvements can best achieve the standard. Standards are calculated such that at least 65% of buildings have to improve their energy performance.
Building Division for the City of St. Louis has identified 4 guiding principles for the target setting process:
- Facilitate energy and cost savings for building owners.
- Support the City of St. Louis in achieving its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal (100% reduction by 2050).
- Ensure that the target setting process is transparent, equitable, and clearly communicated.
- Demonstrate that implementing building energy performance standards is achievable in a smaller, non-coastal city.
Balancing these principles will require tradeoffs between setting ambitious, data-driven targets that are tailored to each property type and ensuring that the basis for the targets can be communicated clearly in a way that stakeholders broadly view as fair.
Providing Comments on Draft BEPS Targets
***UPDATE***
After reviewing the comments from the Building Division’s 30+ day comment period, and taking them into consideration, the Building Energy Improvement Board (BEIB) has approved final BEPS targets. Based on stakeholder feedback, the Building Division and BEIB have made 2 updates to the final BEPS targets.
- Museums and Libraries were moved from the “Public Assembly” super-category into their own individual property types.
- National 35th percentile values are now assigned to the following property types: Food Service, Library, Refrigerated Warehouse.
Below are documents that showcase the approved BEPS targets, methodology, and infographic of the BEPS targets:
Approved BEPS Chart
Chart for visualizing the BEPS target for each property type.
Approved BEPS Summary
BEPS targets by property type
BEPS Fact Sheet
High-level overview of the Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) ordinance.
Method for Grouping Property Types (BEPS)
Provides an explanation of the method used for setting our draft BEPS targets and the method for grouping property types.
STL BEPS Fact Sheet (2022-02-08)
Factsheet that explains the City's four BEPS compliance pathways for building owners.
