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Building Energy Upgrade Program

What is the Building Energy Upgrade (BE UP) Program?

The City of Westminster’s Building Energy Upgrade Program (BE UP) is a FREE support service aimed at helping Westminster's commercial and multi-family buildings navigate and comply 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 is designed to support local building owners and managers save money through energy efficiency improvements while complying with the State’s BPS requirements. The City of Westminster understands that navigating the State’s program can be complicated. BE UP will bridge the gap and offer free assistance to our community.

Colorado’s Building Performance Standards:Building Performance Colorado logo

The following information provides important information regarding the State’s Building Performance Standards.

What are Colorado’s Building Performance Standards?

The “Energy Performance for Buildings” statute (HB21-1286) requires owners of commercial, multifamily, and public buildings* 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.

*Public building owners are only required to bring their building into compliance with the performance standards if the building undergoes a construction or a renovation project under specific circumstances. See the BPS Technical Guide for details. 

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 sqft within the State of Colorado are required to submit energy benchmarking reports to State by June 1st each year. This year's report is due by August 1st, 2024. 2024 reporting season will open March 15th, 2024. The BPC Help Center will open in March and will email building owners with more information.

Building Energy Targets

Starting in 2026, buildings must 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 by July 1, 2024 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.

The FREE services Westminster BE UP provides:

The City of Westminster’s BE UP program provides everything included below is at no cost to participating Westminster commercial buildings:

  • 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 more

  • Assistance selecting your building’s optimal BPS compliance pathway by July 1, 2024

  • 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. 

Resources for BPS Compliance and Energy Savings

Financial Resources:

Several resources are available to support building owner capital investment aimed at reducing energy use. Visit these sites to learn more:

Technical Assistance Resources:

Curious about additional business assistance on sustainability topics? 

Check out the SAGE Sustainable Business Program!