With a focus in Colombia and Mexico, and the national support of respective Green Building Councils, the BEA project sets ambitious standards and baselines for energy savings in different building typologies, covering both new and existing buildings.
In Bogota, Colombia, the BEA project as led by Colombia Green Building Council, updated the national energy efficiency building code to set a new baseline which requires all new buildings to achieve 20% energy savings and 30% water savings, starting in 2020. It is projected that this new policy will reduce emissions by improving the performance of 2.5 million homes that are expected to be built in the next thirty years.
In Mexico, with the leadership of SUMe (Mexico Green Building Council), the State of Campeche developed a 2021 public policy with mandatory guidelines that incorporate energy efficiency criteria in the operation, purchase, lease, and/or loan of state public buildings (offices, hospitals, schools, etc.). Campeche is intent on leading by example, selecting the State’s Place of Government as the pilot project to design and implement the Energy Management System.
The Mexican State of Yucatan developed a Technical Standard on Energy Efficiency in Buildings of the Public Administration in 2020, and a case study to identify opportunities for introducing technologies with low global warming potential and high-efficiency refrigerants in buildings.
Throughout Central America, Green Building Councils working with BEA committed cities have supported efforts in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica, where a hub of municipalities shared best practice, technical efforts, the assessment of energy savings and other resources with platforms and tools.
This includes the “Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits” (BETTER) via a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Johnson Controls, with support from ICF. This partnership provided technical and strategic tools to design and implement building efficiency measures to over twelve committed cities and states.
Examples of the tools range from designing a protocol that allows for the local implementation to workshops and educational training for all audiences. More than 3,000 local government officials, private sector representatives, academic institutions, and international partners in Latin America participated in online and in-person activities and workshops on the fundamentals of structuring, implementing, measuring and reviewing such a code. In addition, demonstration projects and private sector commitments showcased the economic business case for building efficiency measures. Thus, this partnership paves the way for mass scale uptake of buildings that help us achieve our carbon emission targets.