Building Performance Standards

BPS focus on increased building efficiency, plugging into a larger effort of climate change mitigation policies across Colorado, nationwide, and beyond. Investing in the built environment, where we spend 90% of our time, beneficially impacts health, safety, comfort, and resilience.

BPS are a critical tool to mitigate and adapt to impacts of climate change both at the utility level and for community members. Better air quality benefits all residents, as do improvements resulting in increased health, safety, comfort, and resilience. Utility customers stand to benefit directly from BPS through lower utility bills. Multi-family tenants and property managers benefit from reduced operations and maintenance costs, and increased occupancy and tenant retention. Businesses benefit from higher productivity of on-site staff. Building owners benefit from the higher property value of efficient buildings and the value of efficiency investments.

More efficient buildings can also lead to:

• Lower utility bills
• Improved indoor and outdoor air quality
• Increased occupancy and tenant retention
• Higher productivity in employees
• Higher property values
• High-paying jobs and a more competitive economic environment

Below are a few key takeaways from the Task Force recommendations and Community Contributor recommendations.

Buildings Proposed to be Included (Covered) under BPS:

BPS policy recommendations center on increased efficiency demonstrated through decreased Energy Use Intensity (EUI). Based on committee recommendations, staff recommend covering commercial and multi-family buildings 5,000 square feet and above. The proposed BPS would include just below 1,400 buildings, 32% of which already meet proposed targets. Covered buildings account for 40% of all Fort Collins building electricity use (including residential and industrial properties).

BPS Targets:

Staff recommends adopting an EUI target for individual covered buildings. EUI is typically measured by thousand British thermal units (kBTU/square foot) and is a common metric that includes multiple fuels (often natural gas and electricity) used for energy in a building within a single metric. EUI is tracked through Utilities' existing benchmarking program, ensuring objective targets are easily monitored. A common metric for tracking BPS compliance around the country, and used in both Denver and the State of Colorado, EUI provides an objective comparison of all energy use accounting for weather, building size, and property use type.

Staff recommend buildings between 5,000-10,000 square feet have more-attainable targets.

Compliance Timeline:

Staff recommend implementing a BPS with 2027 as the interim timeline and 2030 as the target deadline. For the smallest cohort of covered buildings, those 5,000-10,000 square feet, staff proposes an extended timeline. These dates ensure time for community education, engagement, and action, and also are timely enough to contribute to Our Climate Future 2030 emissions reductions goals.

Alternative Compliance Pathways:

Staff designed alternatives to ensure buildings are not tasked with meeting unachievable targets. Recommended “off-ramps” include EUI reduction caps which limit the maximum energy savings a building would need to achieve, timeline and target adjustments, waivers, and the potential for providing additional help for under-resourced buildings.

For more details, watch the April 23, 2024 City Council Work Session here.

While BPS can have significant positive impacts on our community, any policy can do further harm and perpetuate existing inequities if not thoughtfully designed around social equity. Recommendations seek to shape a policy that encourages benefits in health, safety, comfort, and resilience while working to reduce the risk of increased unaffordability. Community contributors have discussed recommendations with program staff to encourage maintained affordability in housing, and ongoing work focuses on relevant offerings directed to under-resourced building owners.

Community contributors shared that successful implementation depends on resources for all buildings, with an emphasis on under-resourced buildings. This includes education on the benefits associated with BPS and their alignment with City and community goals, as well as robust and targeted educational, financial, and technical resources. Identifying and offering appropriate resources is an essential strategy to keep the policy from hindering economic growth.

Staff continue to explore ways to build upon the robust federal, state, and local incentives currently available for energy efficiency projects. Acknowledging that there will still be a cost associated for many buildings, partnership with “green” financing providers such as Colorado PACE and the Colorado Clean Energy Fund is an essential path to assure payments for upgrades better align with payoff periods, and high upfront costs are minimized or avoided entirely. Utilities plans further education for covered building owners to demonstrate how green financing can overcome perceived barriers focusing on return on investment. Partnerships also help determine where the City can assist with financing gaps.

While cost barriers may seem like the most profound, our informed community voices shared that technical and educational resources are no less critical. Educational resources set for development, if BPS policy is adopted, include training and on-demand recordings. A Help Center will be on hand to support building owners with compliance and provide assistance for both simple and highly technical questions and requests. An online hub will provide educational resources including technical and financial.

Existing technical support is available to building owners to identify low- and no-cost improvements along with smart investments in energy efficiency. Staff are prepared to build upon existing resources with additional support for all covered buildings and advanced technical support for under-resourced buildings through an expansion of existing vendor partnerships. On-site, whole building assessments with targeted recommendations will help assure building owners understand their best options to meet targets, and encourage alignment with 2050 carbon neutrality goals.

Staff continue to address workforce challenges by exploring a local scholarship program. Collaborating with local jurisdictions with adopted policies (Denver, Boulder, Aspen, and the Colorado Energy Office) allows shared learning and resources, extends opportunity to expand the workforce and partner for other resources including funding opportunities.

Crafting a policy that reflects our local circumstances isn’t something City staff can do alone. We need community involvement to co-create this policy and assure proposed compliance pathways accommodate the various functions, sizes, and occupancy types of local commercial and multifamily buildings.

Throughout 2023, a BPS Task Force comprised of local stakeholders met monthly to draft policy recommendations. A Technical Committee with knowledge of local building stock and building science best practices supported the Task Force and continues to met to determine how those recommendations can be put into practice in Fort Collins.

Staff also work with a Climate Equity Committee to assess how policy recommendation outcomes may impact people and organizations.

If you aren't a part of the Task Force, Technical or Equity Committees, but still have input on local BPS or want to participate in the process, we want to hear from you.

Greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change, which leads to more frequent and extreme weather events. Those weather events have cost our country nearly two trillion dollars, and the trend of increasing damage is projected to continue until we make drastic changes.

Building upon existing programs including business efficiency rebates and the commercial Building Energy and Water Scoring program, the Our Climate Future plan specifically identifies “efficient, emissions free buildings” as one of the Big Moves toward achieving our ambitious community goals. BPS are a critical pathway to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The City is a proud member of the National BPS Coalition. Dozens of state and local governments have committed to inclusively designing and implementing building performance policies and programs. The coalition’s communities have a goal to adopt localized BPS by Earth Day 2024.