The Fort Collins Sustainability Group (FCSG) reiterates its support for a strong Building Performance Standards (BPS) Policy. City Council will consider weakening the policy proposed by staff last summer at its work session on January 14th. The FCSG has reviewed the proposed modifications, and urges council not to make any changes that would significantly diminish the environmental impacts of the policy.
The wildfires raging in Los Angeles, which are expected to result in losses of well over $100 billion, point clearly to the high costs of inaction on addressing the climate crisis. The recent announcement by Copernicus that the global average temperature rise exceeded the 1.5 °C guardrail in 2024 makes clear that the widely adopted goal of a 50% reduction in climate pollution by 2030 is wholly inadequate. Fort Collins needs to show the way by reducing its climate pollution by at least 80% by 2030. The truth is that the climate crisis is already severe, and further delays in making sharp cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will only make a bad situation worse.
The work session presentation points out that there will be significant benefits to businesses and institutions for reducing their energy use as called for by the BPS policy as it currently stands. It states that every dollar invested now will result in $2.80 worth of avoided energy costs by 2050. It further states that the average simple payback for the building upgrades required to comply with the policy would be 8 years, which equates to an approximate return on investment of 12%. That’s comparable to the performance of the S&P 500 Index over the past decade. The direct economic benefits of reducing energy consumption and the attendant climate pollution are very compelling.
Please tell City staff not to weaken the proposed BPS policy, and please ask them to bring the policy to you for a vote as soon as possible. The window for us to act on the climate crisis is too narrow to justify any delays in meeting our ambitious climate pollution reduction goals.
