Building Energy Compliance Requirements are Coming Quickly – Get Ready! (Colorado Edition)

You may have heard that there are laws all over the country requiring commercial buildings to reduce energy use to meet energy performance standards. Lack of compliance means substantial fines in some areas; you need to start work now. To make it more complicated, the law is different in each municipality.

NPC’s energy team can help and will be publishing a brief summary the requirement in each City and State to let you know what’s coming. Reach out if we can help!

Requirements of Colorado’s Building Performance Program:

• Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 64.3 kBTU/sf in 2026 (for hotels).
• Must maintain that EUI each year through 2029.
• New lower targets start in 2030.
• Alternative pathways are available that allows higher interim EUI targets or by meeting Greenhouse Gas Reduction targets instead of EUI.
• There are fines of up to $5,000 per month for violations.  Note that Colorado will not accept paying fines in lieu of meeting the requirements.  They state that they may seek injunctive relief to force compliance!

It is important to begin planning now in case building upgrades are required to meet requirements.

Next Steps:

• Check your building status here: BEAM Platform (beam-portal.org)
• If your Hotel’s EUI is above 64.3, perform and Energy Audit to determine what you can do.