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Minnesota Sustainable Building 2030 Consultant Team

Center for Sustainable Building Research

Richard Graves, Director

Patrick Smith, Senior Research Fellow

Center for Energy and the Environment

Russ Laundry, Mechanical Engineer

Willdan

Doug Wolf

LHB Architects

David Williams, High Performance Projects Principal

Herzog/Wheeler

Peter Herzog, Owner

History

In the summer of 2007, the Governor’s Climate Change Advisory Group recommended that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in buildings, a similar approach to the national Architecture 2030 should be adopted for Minnesota. Architecture 2030 outlines specific performance targets for energy use in buildings until 2030. Every five years, the total energy use in buildings is to be reduced starting in 2010 at 60% and ending in 2030 as a 100% reduction (net zero carbon). The benchmark for these reductions in the national program is the energy use of the average building in 2003 found in the federal CBECS database.

  • 2010 – 60% reduction in carbon producing fuel used for building energy.
  • 2015 – 70% reduction in carbon producing fuel used for building energy.
  • 2020 – 80% reduction in carbon producing fuel used for building energy.
  • 2025 – 90% reduction in carbon producing fuel used for building energy.
  • 2030 – 100% reduction in carbon producing fuel used for building energy.

In the spring of 2008, the Minnesota Legislature passed a bill designating the Center for Sustainable Research at the University of Minnesota to develop a Minnesota program reflecting the goals of Architecture 2030. This program was named Sustainable Buildings 2030 (SB 2030).

To Begin the Process

A fee for non-State funded projects using SB 2030 and/or the B3 Guidelines began to be required in late 2022 in order to cover the cost of project support and review. These fees were updated July 1, 2025 and took effect on August 31st, 2025– UPDATED SB 2030 Fee Table and Memo

Note that several documents below have different versions depending on which Standard is being used.

Projects meeting the B3 and SB 2030 programs are evaluated for compliance during design and construction and for a period of 10 years of occupancy.

SB 2030 Program Updates: 90% Reduction Standard

Starting January 1, 2025, buildings participating in the SB 2030 program will need to meet more stringent, 90% better-than-baseline requirements. This change is paired with several other significant program updates, driven by changes to Minnesota’s utility conservation program requirements, the carbon free electricity standard, and advancements in the treatment of off-site renewable energy resources.

The program updates – which are applicable to projects starting schematic design on January 1, 2025 or later – are described in more detail here: SB 2030 in 2025: Program Update

Documents