FAQs
- Meeting with several community-based organizations (CBOs) focusing on affordability
- Connecting with local subsidized housing providers
- Engaging with the newly formed Climate Equity Committee (CEC) for long-term partnership
- Beginning scoped work in 2024 to identify under-resourced commercial buildings and their barriers to efficiency
- Increasing access to high-quality job opportunities
- Improving people’s health, safety and comfort when they are inside
- Decreasing energy burden
- Improving our local economy
- Increasing resilience
- Reducing pollution/improving outdoor air quality
Who will BPS impact?
Final BPS policy recommendations will impact several groups of people, most notably building owners, property managers, real estate brokers and lenders, design, development and construction professionals, commercial property lease holders, building employees and occupants, and multifamily building residents.
Energy efficient upgrades lead to better air quality in homes and workplaces. They also use less energy. which contributes to better outdoor air quality, and impacts our entire community.
Why this approach?
BPS are the most powerful and direct tool for driving improved energy use in existing buildings. They can also increase safety and comfort, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, fuel local job creation and economic growth, and reduce energy costs.
Lowering energy use in buildings reduces carbon dioxide emissions and helps us meet our climate goals. BPS are outlined in Our Climate Future, our local community plan to address climate change. Our Climate Future targets reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 2005 baseline levels by 2030. Making buildings more efficient is a critical part of achieving that goal. Check out Our Climate Future to learn more about Fort Collins' 2030 goals.
Who is using BPS?
Regionally:
Learn more about Energize Denver here, the Boulder Building Performance Ordinance here, and Aspen's Building IQ program here.
Find out more about the State of Colorado’s BPS here. They require a 7% greenhouse gas reduction by 2026 and 20% by 2030 for buildings 50,000 square feet and larger. The state’s BPS are expected to be finalized in 2023.
Nationally:
Building Performance Standards are in use across the country, from Washington DC to Washington state and many cities and states in between.
Find information on BPS at the federal level here.
See the National BPS Coalition website to learn more about other communities committed to inclusively designing and implementing BPS.
How is the City engaging the community?
This Our City page is the primary information hub. The project team updates it as the project progresses. In person or virtual information and feedback sessions will be listed on this site.
In late 2022, Utilities convened an internal task force composed of City and Platte River Power Authority staff. Part of those discussions helped shape the external Task Force composed of experts representing industries that would likely be significantly impacted by BPS.
Our external Task Force met throughout 2023 and brought critical perspectives to define policy recommendations for a truly implementable local BPS.
Also in 2023, Utilities formed a Technical Committee. This committee is composed of an experienced consultant along with a group of local experts with deep expertise in building science. The Technical Committee supported Task Force recommendations with extensive data review while balancing real-world understanding of Fort Collins buildings (accounting for our local buildings, technical feasibility, upgrade timelines, and costs). As of April 2024, the Technical Committee continues to meet.
Equity-focused engagement included:
Staff plan to continue to check in with CBOs and partner with the CEC to monitor for negative repercussions from an equity lens. Should they occur, staff would partner to explore recommendations to address identified repercussions.
Broad community outreach with internal and external groups included business groups, environmental groups, other jurisdictions, federal partners, local boards, and more. We continue to seek feedback internally and in the community around the policy recommendations and required supporting resources. Program staff strive to bring leadership policy recommendations that are shaped by and for the community, informed by regional and nationwide partnerships leveraging industry-wide best practice along with learnings from jurisdictions with existing policies.
What does equity have to do with BPS?
The most vulnerable people are the most likely to suffer the worst impacts of climate change. They often live and work in inadequate infrastructure or lack sufficient resources to change their circumstances. BPS can benefit disproportionately impacted communities by:
For example, many multi-family building residents don’t have a say in decisions their building owner makes. At the same time, decisions about and changes to multi-family buildings can affect indoor and outdoor air quality, health outcomes, and energy or rent costs.
By hearing multi-family building resident voices and considering impacts policy may have on them, we are able to prepare for and mitigate potential negative repercussions before policy goes into effect. Furthermore, policy impacts will be reviewed after implementation to identify and address any unintended negative consequences that may have occurred.