Building Energy Upgrade Program

The Building Energy Upgrade Program (BE UP) is a free support service aimed at helping Westminster's commercial and multi-family buildings identify and complete energy effiency and electrification upgrades. BE UP can also support navigation and compliance with Colorado's new Building Performance Standards (BPS), which will require many buildings 50,000 square feet or larger to improve their energy efficiency.

BE UP  provides everything included below for free to Westminster qualifying buildings:

  • Virtual consultation with the BE UP energy management team in order to generate preliminary technical energy-reducing project recommendations and cost-benefit analysis
  • Access to Touchstone IQ for Buildings software to streamline benchmarking, view your energy consumption data, conduct a virtual energy assessment, and help you manage energy reduction projects to comply with Colorado's requirements
  • Support identifying potential rebate and financial incentives to decrease energy efficiency installation costs.
  • Robust education on Colorado's BPS, including an understanding of the program requirements, the building owner compliance timeline, individual building efficiency targets, alternate compliance pathway options, and assistance selecting your building's optimal BPS compliance pathway

Register for BE UP online or contact BE UP via email or 720-986-4955.

Resources for Energy Savings and BPS Compliance

Financial Resources

Buildings that participate in BE UP are eligible to receive a grant for energy upgrades. Several resources are available to support building owner capital investment aimed at reducing energy use:

Technical Assistance Resources

Contact BE UP Advisors

Email BE UP Advisors
Phone: 720-986-4955

State's Building Performance Standards

The "Energy Performance for Buildings" statute (HB21-1286) requires owners of commercial, multifamily, and public buildings (see Note 1) 50,000 square feet or larger to annually benchmark their whole-building energy use and meet set building performance targets. To meet these targets, Colorado has a statewide building performance standards (BPS) program with a goal at increasing energy efficiency and decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector by 7% by 2026 and 20% by 2030. This BPS program will not only help building owners reduce their emissions and energy costs, but it will also support workforce training and job growth in Colorado, especially in the fast-growing energy efficiency sector.

Building Benchmarking & Reporting

Benchmarking refers to measuring and tracking energy use in buildings. This helps building owners and tenants better understand their building's energy performance compared to similar buildings and allows them to identify opportunities to cut energy waste and save money.

Commercial, multifamily, and public buildings greater than or equal to 50,000 square feet within the State of Colorado are required to submit energy benchmarking reports to State each year. The BPC Help Center will open in March and will email building owners with more information.

Building Energy Targets

Starting in 2026, buildings are encouraged also meet energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets, which are aimed at improving energy efficiency. The state will determine if these targets are met specifically through the 2026 and 2030 benchmarking report submissions.This means that many buildings in Westminster will need to select a building performance standard compliance pathway and in many cases, complete energy efficiency projects by the end of 2025. Failure to reach these efficiency standards can result in financial penalties issued by the State.

Learn more about the State Building Performance Standards.