The barriers and drivers to decarbonization of the building sector in the United States: Qualitative insights from Boston and Phoenix

• High costs mask deeper institutional and social barriers to building decarbonization. • Workforce development is essential to enforce and implement efficiency standards. • Institutional gaps and risk aversion are key barriers across the building lifecycle. • Behavioral barriers highlight the need for health-focused, emotionally engaging messaging. • Current cost models and bid practices hinder widespread adoption of low-carbon buildings The building sector accounts for approximately 37% of global carbon dioxide emissions, making it a critical focus for climate change mitigation. Despite the urgency to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the sector has been slow to adopt decarbonization strategies due to intersecting social, institutional, economic, political and technical barriers. To understand the nature of these barriers, this study draws on 60 semi-structured interviews and follow-up surveys with expert practitioners in Boston and Phoenix in the United States, examining barriers to scaling net zero building practices. We find that while high costs are frequently discussed, these economic premiums reflect deeper structural and institutional impediments, workforce gaps, perceptions of high risk, and weak regulatory capacity. We analyze 151 barriers and 117 drivers across social, economic, behavioral, and political categories and identify the importance of building institutional capacity to pivot away from building conventional, carbon-intensive buildings. From these findings, key interventions include increasing transparency in material sourcing, investing in workforce development for high-performance technologies, educating the public on the co-benefits of decarbonization, and developing standardized codes and oversight that distributes risks of technical adoption more equitably among stakeholders.