The Energize Denver Ordinance is key to achieving an equitable path to healthier, safer, net zero carbon buildings in Denver. Throughout the development and refinement of the policy over the past decade, Denver has valued its stakeholders’ and community’s input. The timeline below outlines the development of the policy and extensive community engagement along the way.
The original Energize Denver Task Force met in 2015-2016 to develop the first consensus recommendations(PDF, 1MB) for an annual benchmarking requirement through a robust public input process. The consensus recommendations also included a building performance standard, but it was not adopted by city council at that time.
Task Force members testified in favor of the recommendations in the Energize Denver Ordinance 16-1231, which was passed by city council later that month.
Denver Department of Public Health and Environment’s Climate Team adopted its first rules and regulations for annual benchmarking.
Denver ran a Climate Action Task Force with a robust public engagement process to develop recommendations to improve the city’s efforts on climate change. The task force included a recommendation to develop a building performance standard.
The Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency (CASR) ran a second Energize Denver Task Force made up of community members and building industry representatives to develop consensus recommendations (video)for existing buildings to reduce their energy use, mitigating their climate impact. The task force had extensive public input into their process, and once their recommendations were complete in August 2021, a public briefing was held in September, 2021.
Diverse Task Force Members and public present and testify in favor of Energize Denver Ordinance 21-1310, which was passed by city council unanimously on November 22, 2021. Testimony in support included:
CASR ran an informal public briefing in December, 2021, followed by a formal public hearing (zoom passcode: Xy9*K0yT) in January, 2022 to adopt the rules and regulations for the Energize Denver building performance policy.
The building performance team performed extensive stakeholder engagement on the first set of rules to further develop technical guidance and refine the rules for more equitable implementation.
Summary of updates:
The team performed extensive stakeholder and community engagement to develop an Equity Priority Building compliance assistance program for buildings 25,000 sq. ft. and larger.
Summary of what stakeholders told us they would need:
After multiple rounds of public comment on the technical guidance document and latest version of the rules, CASR held a public hearing to adopt the 3rd version of the Energize Denver Rules and Regulations.
The team performed extensive stakeholder engagement to create an alternate compliance option and targets for manufacturing, agricultural, and industrial (MAI) buildings 25,000 sq. ft. and larger.
Summary of the compliance option:
The team performed extensive stakeholder engagement to develop technical guidance and refine the rules for the prescriptive requirements for buildings 5,000-24,999 sq. ft. (see summary at the bottom of this page).
After multiple rounds of public comment on the technical guidance documents and latest version of the rules, CASR held a public hearing to adopt the 4th version of the Energize Denver Rules and Regulations. Summary of updates:
The team participated as a party to the rulemaking process at the Air Quality Control Commission for Regulation 28 to better align the state building performance requirements with Energize Denver.
The team performed stakeholder engagement to discussing adding alternate compliance options to Energize Denver to make it easier for buildings 50,000 sq. ft. and larger to comply with both the state and Denver requirements.