Last month, June 2024, the US Department of Energy (DOE) published the first ‘US National Definition of Zero Emissions Buildings’ to a tempered reaction from many in the buildings, energy, and environmental communities. After months of deliberation, the DOE’s somewhat simplistic definition reads: “A building is regarded as ‘zero emissions’ if it is highly energy efficient, does not emit greenhouse gasses directly from energy use, and is powered by clean energy.” On the surface, this definition may seem positive, but you don’t have to dig very deep to realize the problem it creates. The role of a definition is, in part, to reduce subjectivity, so the use of the term “highly efficient” seems dangerously open to interpretation. Definitions should also incorporate all aspects of a topic, so the omission of all non-operational energy emissions feels suspiciously limited. While the choice not to define clean energy by on/off-site resources appears to lack the ambition required to […]