The City of Santa Monica recently utilized Clean Power Alliance’s Reach Code Program to help achieve targeted policy goals focused on decarbonizing existing buildings.
CPA’s program has helped the city increase staff capacity and develop policy guidelines for existing building reach codes, while conducting community engagement and outreach.
A reach code is a local building energy code that “reaches” beyond or exceeds the state minimum requirements for energy use in building design and construction. They are adopted by city councils and county boards of supervisors with input from builders, contractors, and community members to improve indoor air quality, increase electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, and reduce harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The Reach Code Program supports Los Angeles County and Ventura County municipalities that are served by CPA by helping them evaluate and adopt building electrification codes.
Santa Monica Councilmember and CPA Board Director Gleam Davis believes that these efforts are going to make a huge impact on making local buildings greener. “I am immensely pleased by Santa Monica’s participation in Clean Power Alliance’s Reach Code program. By participating in the program Santa Monica is leading in building decarbonization, an important piece of our Climate Action and Adaptation Plan,” Davis said. “I’m excited that Clean Power Alliance and Santa Monica’s collaboration spurred a much-needed learning process about how to implement these types of improvements.”
Reach codes typically promote that new buildings be constructed with additional EV charging locations, electric water heating, space heating, cooking, or other appliances and that existing buildings receive upgrades at specific points such as time-of-sale or when an old appliance is replaced.
CPA has collaborated with local jurisdictions to pass ordinances that incentivize greater decarbonization efforts for commercial buildings with member agencies able to apply for supplemental financial awards ranging from $2,500 – $25,000 to help cover the staff time needed to participate.
Nico Predock, Sustainability Analyst for the City of Santa Monica believes that this is a critical new initiative for the city which spurred a needed learning process on how to implement these improvements.
“The Santa Monica team learned that engaging property owners and technical stakeholders early in the code-development process is key. Staff gained a better understanding of how to implement a policy that will meet both stakeholder interests and climate action goals, by including cost-effective compliance options, flexibility in the policy and creating a policy framework upon which to build in the future,” said Predock. “Through the reach code program, the city was able to interact with other jurisdictions and benchmark progress.”
To learn more about reach codes, visit cleanpoweralliance.org/reachcodes.
