Codes & Standards

Empowering our local building officials and industry to lead our energy efficiency outcomes. 

Our region includes many jurisdictions that face significant challenges with the enforcement of energy codes and standards. These jurisdictions are small in population size, geographically dispersed, challenged by extreme climate conditions, and disadvantaged by pollution and other factors.

In addition, existing buildings pose unique challenges for code compliance compared with new construction, but they far outnumber new buildings in the Inland Empire.  There is a significant opportunity for codes and standards-related energy savings in I-REN’s existing residential building stock through code-compliant equipment installation, additions, alterations, and renovations.

For that reason, I-REN works to empower and support local building department staff and building professionals to be energy-efficiency leaders in their own communities. 

The Codes and Standards Program serves:

• Building department staff
• Other local government staff
• Building professionals
• Other permit applicants
• Partner agencies, utilities, and Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs)
• Industry, stakeholder, and professional groups

Strategies

We have centered our strategies on three crucial areas:

• Supporting local jurisdictions’ building departments.
  • We help your staff by identifying potential issues, providing guidance to permit applicants, and streamlining the permitting process. This new knowledge supports local code enforcement and compliance and cultivates the associated energy savings from efficient building practices.
• Engaging and supporting local builders and the building industry to comply with energy codes.
  • We help educate and inform contractors and building professionals in the Inland Empire. Making our buildings more energy efficient and capturing the subsequent savings takes understanding the codes, ensuring compliance, and knowing what resources are available.
• Providing regional tools, training, and resources to promote energy codes.
  • We serve as a bridge between the Statewide Codes Team and the local industry by bringing together best practices and sharing them through locally relevant resources, materials, regional forums, and trainings. Please check I-REN’s calendar [insert link] for a schedule of upcoming regional forums and trainings.

If you are interested in no-cost resources for a better understanding of local codes and compliance, please email us.