Meet Rebecca Sheppard, Senior Project Manager at Building Potential and the Smart Buildings Center. Rebecca is on the front lines of one of the most significant shifts in commercial building policy in the Pacific Northwest — helping building owners, managers, and operators navigate Building Performance Standards in the Northwest.
The Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS) is a Washington State law designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency across the state’s commercial building stock. All commercial buildings 20,000 square feet and larger are required to comply, and for many building professionals, figuring out where to start can feel overwhelming. That’s where Rebecca comes in. Through the Smart Buildings Center’s Clean Buildings Performance Standard Helpdesk — sponsored by the Washington State Department of Commerce and participating utilities — Rebecca provides one-on-one technical assistance, benchmarking support, resources, and trainings to help buildings get on the path to compliance.
Oregon has also implemented a Building Performance Standard, and Rebecca is expanding her work to support building professionals there as well. In partnership with ClearlyEnergy and the Oregon Department of Energy, Rebecca will be leading helpdesk services for Oregon, bringing the same hands-on technical assistance to building owners, managers, and operators as they work toward compliance with Oregon’s standard.
Rebecca’s work doesn’t stop at her desk. She regularly attends industry conferences to speak about Building Performance Standards compliance and to train building professionals on what they need to know. Whether she’s leading a workshop, presenting to a room full of facility managers, or walking a building owner through their first benchmarking submission, Rebecca brings both deep technical knowledge and a genuine commitment to making clean building operations accessible to everyone she works with.
