In late September, we sent a letter to City Council urging you to ask Utility Services staff to include two additional compliance pathways in their proposed Building Performance Standards (BPS) policy. Those two pathways, which focus on reducing building greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI), would make compliance easier for many building owners and would help promote building electrification.
Sadly, staff makes no reference to the two proposed GHGI pathways in the work session item for October 28th. However, we were pleased to see that the Air Quality Advisory Board did call for the inclusion of those pathways in their memo dated 10/20/25, which is part of the work session packet.
We now urge you to ask staff why they did not include the two proposed GHGI pathways in their BPS proposal, and request that they do so before bringing a BPS ordinance to you for a vote later this year if you are not satisfied with their answer. Adding the GHGI pathways would be neither complicated nor time-consuming. Colorado allows owners of large buildings to comply with state BPS requirements via the two additional pathways we have proposed. The state regulation is available here, and the Colorado Energy Office’s technical resource guide for meeting the standard requirements is available here. Modifying the state’s guidance for use by Fort Collins for smaller buildings would not be difficult.
Adding the two GHGI compliance pathways as options would not harm any building owner, and would make it easier for many of them to comply. This may allow the City to stick to the original compliance deadline of 2030, rather than pushing the deadline back to 2032 or 2035, as staff has suggested be done. We note that the State of Colorado has not relaxed its compliance deadline of 2030 for larger buildings. We also note that in the “Our Climate Future Goals” presentation for the October 28th work session, staff identifies the community’s 2030 goal as being “off track.” Pushing the BPS deadline back will only place achievement of the 2030 goal at further risk.
Adding the two GHGI compliance pathways to the City’s BPS ordinance will not cost anyone more money, will make compliance easier in many cases, and will support this council’s goal of accelerating building electrification. Please do everything you can to ensure the inclusion of those pathways in the final version of the ordinance.
