Codes Market Progress Evaluation Report #6

The Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) contracted with NMR Group, Inc. (NMR) to conduct the sixth Market Progress Evaluation Report (MPER) for its commercial and residential codes efforts. The evaluation examined NEEA’s influence on code development and adoption in the Northwest, NEEA-supported energy code-related training and education efforts, and market actor use of software tools for code compliance assessment. 

Between November 2024 and September 2025, NMR compiled and analyzed information from document reviews, interviews with NEEA staff and energy code market actors, and a survey of recent trainees. Key MPER findings include: 

• NEEA and its partners are successfully influencing more robust energy codes in the Northwest and nationally through research (funding and dissemination of key findings), sustained contributions across code cycles, coalition-building, and fostering open dialogue among various stakeholders. 

• NEEA’s training and education efforts largely provide effective support for market actors. Opportunities remain to strengthen outcomes related to compliance assessment and understanding of code requirements. 

• Market actor use of compliance software tools is inconsistent; however, many market actors who do not currently use such tools expressed interest in doing so if relevant training was available.