Page 27 - Green Builder November Issue Codes Update

OR SOME CODE OFFICIALS, IT WAS A RELIEF. The idea that building energy code compliance

F could be determined largely by looking at a single 0-100 Energy Rating Index (ERI) score,
instead of assessing the litany of prescriptive measures one by one, may have seemed a
godsend. This seeming relief came after years of rapid advances in energy codes, tightened
government budgets and a growth in the number of code officials (up 3.5 percent from 2014-
2015) that has not kept pace with the growth in construction (residential permits increased
13 percent from 2014-2015, according to U.S. Census data). Other code officials were skeptical, because

the preeminent ERI score–HERS–considers measures that aren’t allowed in the IECC. They responded by adopting ERI

scores that took those measures into account. Sentiments aside, does ERI present any downside for code officials?

CREDIT: ANDRII SALIVON ERI AND THE HERS INDEX manner. These are important goals, to be sure, but they are not the
only ones.
To answer the question, we first need to understand what ERI can
be versus what it actually is today. Some academic work exists on this subject, including the 2010
report, Privatisation of Building Code Enforcement: A Comparative
Section R406 of the 2015 IECC spells out the requirements of the Study of Regimes in Australia and Canada, that examines examples of
ERI path. In theory, multiple software products could be used to privatization of building code enforcement in Canada and Australia.
determine ERI compliance. However, a basic reading of R406 shows The authors summarized the impacts observed as follows: “Overall,
the requirements are essentially tailored to the current HERS system. PSI [private sector involvement] delivers an increase in effectiveness
As a result, while HERS is technically one of many potential ERIs, and efficiency, but at a particular cost of public accountability. A
in reality they are practically one in the same. competitive, rather than a complementary, relationship between the
private and public sectors in a privatized regime is also found to be
Why does that matter? Well, first of all, intent: The HERS score more likely to generate problems related to the equity of the service
began as a green marketing designation for builders who wanted to being provided.”
distinguish their homes from those of competitors or existing homes.
HERS was not designed for code compliance; it was designed for In short, the private sector may be more efficient, but it may not
“green” marketing. be as adept at actually serving the public good. Of course, this is the
very reason why code enforcement has always been the purview
RESNET, a private sector entity, controls the HERS score and of the public sector and not the private in the first place. This
either approves or disapproves the software tools that can provide research is not the final word, but it does serve as a reminder that
them. There are currently only five approved software programs for an assessment of the relative merits of a public or private approach
providing a HERS score. to code enforcement cannot consider efficiency alone, it must also
consider the public benefit derived from either approach.
But while code has long referenced private sector standards,
developed through consensus (typically ANSI and ISO) based FACING THE TRUTH
processes, this is not what we are talking about with the HERS/ Because ERI today means a HERS score, HERS raters will be the parties
ERI relationship. In this case, code is not referencing private relied upon to assess code compliance. In other words, in areas where
sector standards; code is being supplanted by a private sector code ERI becomes the norm, private sector HERS raters will perform the
substitute. Understood this way, Section R406 is not continuation of function long reserved for code officials.
the status quo—the public-private code—it is a dramatic shift from
public ownership to private. As local government leaders look more closely at privatization in
the future, they will surely consider the extent to which it is already
PRIVATIZATION ON THE RISE happening. Where it is, they will likely be emboldened by it, saying,
“Well, we are already moving in this direction anyway, so it is probably
In the article What Is the Future of Code Enforcement?, EfficientGov. a good idea.”
com wrote about the future of building code enforcement and the
growing trend of public-private partnership. Unsurprisingly, it asserts In this way, privatization of building energy codes will serve as
the “Silver Tsunami,” or the aging code official workforce, is spurring part of local officials’ rationale for further privatization of an array of
many local governments to consider outsourced options for future building code activities beyond energy. The point here is not that ERI
code enforcement. is wholly good or wholly bad, but rather that it should be recognized
for what it is: a sea change in energy code compliance, one which
The article includes an interview with a representative of SAFEbuilt, will have implications for building code enforcement writ large. GB
a company whose business model is performing building and zoning
services for governments on a contract basis. The company currently Bill Fay leads the broad-based Energy Efficient Codes Coalition (EECC).
boasts over 250 communities nationwide as customers.

The article pins the growing popularity of outsourcing on costs,
cost recovery and ability to deliver services in a sufficiently timely

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