Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Building Performance Standard topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Denver official tells Evanston committee: verify benchmarking data early and plan realistic timelines
Summary
A Denver official told Evanston’s Healthy Buildings Technical Committee that Denver’s experience shows mandatory third-party data verification, percentile-based targets, and interim timelines helped correct benchmarking errors and enable fairer targets; Denver also offers adjusted targets and supports equity-priority buildings with hands-on assistance.
Sharon, a Denver official invited to share the city’s building-performance experience, told Evanston’s Healthy Buildings Technical Committee that Denver set its initial EUI targets in 2021 using local benchmarking plus CBEX data and hired engineering consultants to develop targets for a diverse building stock.
Sharon said Denver aimed to move buildings toward the top-performing percentile nationally but then adapted its approach after implementation challenges. “The biggest issue that we have had… is benchmarking,” she said, urging Evanston to prioritize accurate benchmarking and early data verification to avoid assigning incorrect targets.
What Denver did: the city used a combination of national CBEX and local data to set targets by property type, created mixed-use calculations based on square footage shares, and established customized targets and alternate compliance pathways for outliers (museums, aquariums, historic buildings). Denver moved to require third-party data verification at program launch, which led many owners to correct square-footage and meter errors and, in some cases, reach compliance without additional efficiency work.
Sharon provided numbers and timelines: Denver covers just under 3,000 large buildings (25,000 sq ft and larger) and nearly 11,000 buildings across its large- and mid-size categories; about 40% of buildings requested target adjustments and many corrected square-footage errors through verification. She described interim targets and a trajectory model (IMT) that sets interim checks (for example, 2028 and a majority final target by 2032) and allows extensions through 2040 in certain circumstances.
Equity and support: Sharon said Denver classifies a set of equity-priority buildings (including many affordable-housing properties) and provides hands-on help—benchmarking support, paid verification and subsidized ASHRAE audits—so those buildings can meet targets without bearing the full cost of technical services.
Takeaway for Evanston: Sharon recommended requiring early data verification and building flexibility into timelines while ensuring a clear, communicated target so engineers can design long-term plans. She suggested Evanston prioritize communications, consider third-party verification early, and design alternate compliance pathways for special building classes.
