Major companies celebrate clean buildings agreement between states

Major businesses, employers, and trade groups applaud a new agreement between nine states to collectively work to reduce climate pollution from buildings in the coming years. 

California, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island today signed a memorandum of understanding outlining their collective efforts to accelerate the deployment of clean technologies such as heat pumps in new and existing homes. The agreement comes amid a surge in corporate support for collaboration among state governments to tackle planet-warming pollution from homes, offices, factories, and other buildings, which account for 40% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. 

“At Eaton, our intelligent power management solutions and services are the cornerstone of the energy transition—enabling customers across industries to identify and act on opportunities to reduce environmental impact,” said Chris Hess, Vice President – global public affairs at Eaton. “We applaud this collaboration among states to leverage innovative new technologies to drive emissions reduction and energy resiliency. From enabling the electrification of homes to reimagining the possibilities of building energy systems, we’re proud to lead the charge and collaborate with our customers, industry partners, and policymakers to accelerate a sustainable future that is resilient, efficient, and secure.” 

"At A.O. Smith, we are leading the way in pioneering clean and efficient building solutions. We have seen firsthand the many benefits these technologies bring to homeowners, renters, businesses, and other ratepayers — as well as the climate,” said Joshua C. Greene, corporate vice president – government, regulatory, and industry affairs, A.O. Smith Corp. “We applaud state action to pragmatically decarbonize buildings, and today are proud to support the collaborative action by eight states and Washington, D.C. that will aggressively cut pollution, modernize homes and offices, and reduce utility costs across the country." 

“Clean, energy efficient buildings can provide important cost saving benefits for households and businesses, while reducing pollution that harms communities and the climate,” said Savannah Bertrand, policy outreach manager, Sealed. “Sealed supports innovative policies that help people make their homes more comfortable, healthy, and sustainable, and we are excited that states are committed to working together to advance these solutions.”   

Businesses support clean building policies that confront the risks of climate change with efficient technologies that reduce costs and energy waste — benefiting the climate, the electric grid, and the economy.  

More than 20 companies, trade groups, and employers have called for “collective state action to decarbonize the building sector and accelerate market adoption of energy saving technologies” in a letter to governors. Signatories include both major building solution providers and large energy consumers, such as A.O. Smith, Carrier, IKEA, Johnson Controls, JLL, Lutron, Schneider Electric, Sealed, Siemens, Trane Technologies, and others. 

“Bold action by state leaders is urgently needed to send clear, long-term economic signals to manufacturers, developers, building and business owners, and residents alike. Building decarbonization is essential to our ambitious climate goals and overall air quality and public health,” the signatories wrote. “We strongly support the execution of multi-state collaborative approaches to develop and implement market-enabling initiatives that unlock the long-term savings, and climate and clean air benefits of building decarbonization.” 

The memorandum of understanding signed today was organized by the nonprofit Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management. It includes goals to ensure that heat pumps account for 65% of residential-scale heating system installations by 2030 and 90% by 2040, and it calls on states to collaborate on developing policies and programs to clean up the building sector, track progress toward their goals, ensure disadvantaged and energy-burdened communities are included in the process, and more. It comes just months after 25 governors committed to work together at Climate Week NYC 2023 to reduce building-related pollution, an announcement that was also met with strong corporate support. 

“State policy is critical to accelerating the adoption of building technologies that are good for the climate and good for business. Initiatives that encourage collaboration across state lines to develop best practices are essential to accelerating this transition,” said Alli Gold Roberts, senior director of state policy, Ceres. “Ceres and the companies we work with applaud today’s memorandum of understanding for its detailed, collaborative, and ambitious approach to cut pollution from the building sector.” 

About Ceres

Ceres is a nonprofit organization working with the most influential capital market leaders to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. Through our powerful networks and global collaborations of investors, companies and nonprofits, we drive action and inspire equitable market-based and policy solutions throughout the economy to build a just and sustainable future. For more information, visit ceres.org and follow @CeresNews.