Every three years, California’s building energy code evolves, adding new goals, tools, and layers of complexity. At A2 Efficiency, we’ve learned that progress in this field isn’t linear; it’s cyclical and collaborative. Each cycle builds on what came before, reminding us that progress also means maintaining what already works.

We’re revisiting the visual tools we created in 2023 to map the complex web of actors and timelines behind the code. With Assembly Bill 130 pausing certain residential updates, it’s worth asking: What does real progress look like when we’re maintaining multiple codes at once?

As a building design professional, the art of explaining thermal comfort is a tricky topic since comfort is a very personal phenomenon and everyone has their own experiences and understands what comfort should be. While there are comfort standards, and in theory there have been for some time, few engineers and architects have time to read these in the myriad of things to pay attention to these days.