Incoming Administration Aims to Cut Carbon Footprint from Buildings by Half via Retrofits

The Biden administration has pledged to establish a target to reduce the carbon footprint of the US building stock by 50% by 2035, upgrading 4 million commercial and residential buildings. Efforts to reach the target have the potential to lower carbon emissions and reduce COVID-19 risks in the near term, mainly through upgrading HVAC systems.

From a COVID-19 perspective, the administration will likely focus initial retrofit efforts on healthcare facilities. However, data from Illinois suggests that factories and commercial workplaces would be next in line since these types of facilities rank high for occurrences of outbreaks.
The best mechanism for stimulating these retrofits is still a matter of debate. One effective method would be to set new standards for commercial HVAC and water heaters (among other categories). Doing so would provide a strong motive for building owners, installers, and tenants to make new investments in energy efficiency.

A New Era for Solution Vendors

New government stimulus money for retrofits would also help contractors. With large amounts of federal money entering the market, contractors would be able to augment new construction projects, which can be cyclical, with more stable retrofit ones (at least as long as the government-backed programs last). By doing so, contractors could perhaps reverse the current business cycle and make retrofits pay the bills with profit margins coming from new construction instead of the other way around, which is now the case according to some.

Government incentives for COVID-19-adapted systems would also allow solution vendors to expand their array of installation and service offerings. A greater need now exists for more customizable settings and optimized HVAC systems that provide enhanced ventilation capabilities. For example, Transformative Wave, an innovator in HVAC and building automation solutions, announced a new feature to its eIQ Platform enabling facility operators to automate ventilation adjustments to comply with the CDC's COVID-19 recommendations.

Assuming federal money arrives soon, many vendors in this space will need to ramp up their education efforts, providing partners, contractors, and end customers with the knowledge they need about the latest technologies aimed at reducing emissions from buildings and lowering pandemic-related risks. Rheem has partnered with Interplay Learning to develop a robust 3D-simulated, VR-based learning platform supporting its goal of training 250,000 industry professionals on sustainable products or sustainable installation by 2025. Siemens has also provided a model to follow its interactive Partner Program combined with high quality specification-based online tools like Siemens' HIT portal, allowing contractors and building owners to model the operational and business value that HVAC retrofits provide. With tools like these and government financial support, the retrofit market could be about to take off.