Building Codes Assistance Project

On September 22, 2008, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford accepted the report of his Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee (CECAC), a group tasked with reviewing possible climate change impacts in South Carolina and formulating strategies to address those changes going forward. Gov. Sanford formed the group in 2007 as a proactive step toward addressing climate and energy policy in South Carolina in hopes that the state could begin to act on those issues on its own ahead of potential federal mandates in the coming years.

The CECAC report identified significant opportunities for reducing GHG emissions growth attributable to the residential, commercial, and industrial (RCI) sectors in South Carolina. These include expanding or launching energy efficiency programs for electricity, natural gas, and other direct-use fuels; regularly updating building codes; requiring state and local governments to implement beyond-code building practices and green power purchase/generation; and actively promoting adoption of combined heat and power in the state.

The committee unanimously recommended that the state take action to remove provisions of state law that conflict with IECC codes and address obstacles to renewable energy use, daylighting, and nonconventional energy-efficient building materials in buildings; improve statewide enforcement of both existing and new building codes at all levels; update South Carolina energy codes regularly; consider advanced codes (i.e., beyond IECC) as appropriate for the state; implement requirements and incentives for ENERGY STAR-certified manufactured housing and manufactured nonresidential buildings; and lobby for more stringent codes for manufactured housing at the federal level.

The goals of this policy are twofold: that 100% of South Carolina's local governments adopt and fully enforce the 2006 IECC in 2009 and the 2012 IECC in 2015; and, that ENERGY STAR-certified manufactured homes achieve 25% market penetration for new manufactured homes by 2010 and 75% by 2020.

The report also recommended that the state undertake government-led, or "lead by example," initiatives and requirements that both help state and local governments achieve substantial energy cost savings and promote the adoption of clean energy technologies for significant GHG emission reductions in new and existing state and local government buildings. This policy achieves GHG reductions by setting a goal for green power purchasing by state and local facilities, as well as conducting audits of energy performance and operations of state and other government buildings and using audit results to target and prioritize investments in improving government building energy efficiency.

Visit Gov. Sanford's website to view the official press release.

For more details, view the Chapter 4 (RCI sector) of the CECAC report. Visit the CECAC website to download the rest of the report.

For South Carolina code status information, consult the BCAP South Carolina Code Status page.