Roadmap to Net Zero Buildings

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Solar panels line the roof of a warehouse with the Golden foothills rising in the background.

Update: Public Meeting--Feb. 29, 2024

The Community Sustainability Advisory Boardmet on Thursday, February 29, 6 – 8:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers room at City Hall (911 10th St.) for an update on the Net Zero Energy Code project.

Update: Proposal Draft Available

Please see the latest Roadmap to Net Zero Buildings proposal draft.

Public comments received until 3/31/2023

Notes from 3-Meeting Series in March and April 2023

Current Energy Code Strategies

Since 2010, Golden has integrated sustainable best practices of the building industry into requirements of new construction and major remodels within Golden. The City uses a modified and simpler version of the USGBC’s LEED checklist which includes a set of required water, energy, and waste standards plus a list of optional actions that require applicants to achieve 25 points through sustainable design before a building permit is issued. Over the years administration of these standards has revealed that they will not allow Golden to achieve our sustainability goals by their deadlines. The maintenance of a mostly points based evaluation system allows for an inconsistent application of requirements and dated sustainability options can often produce disappointing results in energy savings.

By transitioning the regulatory framework from a set of menu options to a primarily standards-based approach, energy regulations will become mandatory and ensure that Golden’s building inventory is consistently moving towards the City’s sustainability goals set in 2019. These goals include:

Renewables

  • To achieve 100% renewable energy for electricity by 2030 and 100% renewable for heating by 2050.
  • To align Greenhouse Gas Emission reductions with the Paris Accord by 2050.

Efficiency

  • To reduce consumption of electricity by 15% by 2030 and reduce consumption of natural gas by 15% by 2030.

The Transition to Net Zero

A citizen task force was formed to help prioritize projects, policies and programs relating to Golden's new energy goals. The energy taskforce met three times during 2020 to establish their recommendations, which were presented to the Community Sustainability Advisory Board in January of 2021. Read the full list of task force recommendations. Among those recommendations are strategies to reduce natural gas usage and to improve energy efficiency for non-residential buildings.

Building on these recommendations, the Community Sustainability Advisory Board (CSAB) and Planning Commission (PC) convened a subcommittee in 2021 to identify further potential strategies that are technologically and financially feasible, and needed to achieve the goals. To implement these strategies will take a mix of regulation (building and zoning codes), incentives (financial and code-related), and education. Briefly these include:

  1. New buildings (including residential, administrative and commercial) would be constructed immediately with 100% renewable (carbon-free) energy and without natural gas or other fossil energy sources to avoid substantial and costly retrofits and remodels in the future. Net zero construction is technologically feasible and financially competitive with traditional fossil energy technologies. Furthermore, net zero construction minimizes monthly energy costs, making living expenses in our City more affordable.
  2. Existing buildings in Golden would gradually switch to using renewable energy sources for electricity demand. This can be provided through a combination of Xcel renewable energy, “Community Choice” programs, Community solar garden(s), energy efficiency measures, and onsite renewable energy production / recovery.
  3. New and existing buildings would be constructed and retrofitted to meet energy efficiency requirements. Energy efficiency needs to be coupled with a conversion to renewable energy sources to keep the costs of renewable energy generation systems economical for businesses and homeowners.

CSAB and PC continue to work together to assess recommendations that address environmental and economic impacts of potential code solutions under consideration of social justice and equity. To meet these goals, CSAB and PC have adopted a set of guiding principles.

With goals and guidelines set, city staff requested proposals from experts to assist in creating new energy codes as well as gather feedback from stakeholders.


Energy Code Stakeholder Group

Thank you to all who have applied to share your perspective on pathways to a greener, built environment. The following representatives were selected to evaluate and develop the strategies outlined above.

  • 2 Planning Commissioners
  • 2 Community Sustainability Advisory Board Members
  • 1 Jeffco Housing Authority/ Affordable Housing Representative
  • 3 Single Family Homeowners
  • 1 Commercial Landord/Owner
  • 1 Local Contractor
  • 1 Commercial & Residential Tenant
  • 1 Building Industry Expert
  • 2 Local Developers

These representatives met to help form a roadmap to achieving Golden’s energy goals by 2030 and 2050. The roadmap includes immediate actions, identifies trigger points related to the build environment in the community, financial options to lessen the burden of improvements or assisting in the financial planning process, and opportunities for transition to renewable energy and electrified fossil fuel free buildings.

Recordings of the meetings are available under "Meeting Recordings" on the right-hand side of this page and the City will continue to ask for public feedback as the group moves through its process.

Update: Public Meeting--Feb. 29, 2024

The Community Sustainability Advisory Boardmet on Thursday, February 29, 6 – 8:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers room at City Hall (911 10th St.) for an update on the Net Zero Energy Code project.

Update: Proposal Draft Available

Please see the latest Roadmap to Net Zero Buildings proposal draft.

Public comments received until 3/31/2023

Notes from 3-Meeting Series in March and April 2023

Current Energy Code Strategies

Since 2010, Golden has integrated sustainable best practices of the building industry into requirements of new construction and major remodels within Golden. The City uses a modified and simpler version of the USGBC’s LEED checklist which includes a set of required water, energy, and waste standards plus a list of optional actions that require applicants to achieve 25 points through sustainable design before a building permit is issued. Over the years administration of these standards has revealed that they will not allow Golden to achieve our sustainability goals by their deadlines. The maintenance of a mostly points based evaluation system allows for an inconsistent application of requirements and dated sustainability options can often produce disappointing results in energy savings.

By transitioning the regulatory framework from a set of menu options to a primarily standards-based approach, energy regulations will become mandatory and ensure that Golden’s building inventory is consistently moving towards the City’s sustainability goals set in 2019. These goals include:

Renewables

  • To achieve 100% renewable energy for electricity by 2030 and 100% renewable for heating by 2050.
  • To align Greenhouse Gas Emission reductions with the Paris Accord by 2050.

Efficiency

  • To reduce consumption of electricity by 15% by 2030 and reduce consumption of natural gas by 15% by 2030.

The Transition to Net Zero

A citizen task force was formed to help prioritize projects, policies and programs relating to Golden's new energy goals. The energy taskforce met three times during 2020 to establish their recommendations, which were presented to the Community Sustainability Advisory Board in January of 2021. Read the full list of task force recommendations. Among those recommendations are strategies to reduce natural gas usage and to improve energy efficiency for non-residential buildings.

Building on these recommendations, the Community Sustainability Advisory Board (CSAB) and Planning Commission (PC) convened a subcommittee in 2021 to identify further potential strategies that are technologically and financially feasible, and needed to achieve the goals. To implement these strategies will take a mix of regulation (building and zoning codes), incentives (financial and code-related), and education. Briefly these include:

  1. New buildings (including residential, administrative and commercial) would be constructed immediately with 100% renewable (carbon-free) energy and without natural gas or other fossil energy sources to avoid substantial and costly retrofits and remodels in the future. Net zero construction is technologically feasible and financially competitive with traditional fossil energy technologies. Furthermore, net zero construction minimizes monthly energy costs, making living expenses in our City more affordable.
  2. Existing buildings in Golden would gradually switch to using renewable energy sources for electricity demand. This can be provided through a combination of Xcel renewable energy, “Community Choice” programs, Community solar garden(s), energy efficiency measures, and onsite renewable energy production / recovery.
  3. New and existing buildings would be constructed and retrofitted to meet energy efficiency requirements. Energy efficiency needs to be coupled with a conversion to renewable energy sources to keep the costs of renewable energy generation systems economical for businesses and homeowners.

CSAB and PC continue to work together to assess recommendations that address environmental and economic impacts of potential code solutions under consideration of social justice and equity. To meet these goals, CSAB and PC have adopted a set of guiding principles.

With goals and guidelines set, city staff requested proposals from experts to assist in creating new energy codes as well as gather feedback from stakeholders.


Energy Code Stakeholder Group

Thank you to all who have applied to share your perspective on pathways to a greener, built environment. The following representatives were selected to evaluate and develop the strategies outlined above.

  • 2 Planning Commissioners
  • 2 Community Sustainability Advisory Board Members
  • 1 Jeffco Housing Authority/ Affordable Housing Representative
  • 3 Single Family Homeowners
  • 1 Commercial Landord/Owner
  • 1 Local Contractor
  • 1 Commercial & Residential Tenant
  • 1 Building Industry Expert
  • 2 Local Developers

These representatives met to help form a roadmap to achieving Golden’s energy goals by 2030 and 2050. The roadmap includes immediate actions, identifies trigger points related to the build environment in the community, financial options to lessen the burden of improvements or assisting in the financial planning process, and opportunities for transition to renewable energy and electrified fossil fuel free buildings.

Recordings of the meetings are available under "Meeting Recordings" on the right-hand side of this page and the City will continue to ask for public feedback as the group moves through its process.

Discussions: All (2) Open (2)
  • Participate in the Forum for New Construction

    by Marissa, almost 2 years ago
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    For comments, open-ended questions, and thoughts on the three proposed energy code options as they impact new construction. Remember that these options are being evaluated based on the following criteria:

    • Does the code option meet the guiding principles?
    • Does the code option help the City meet its sustainability goals?
    • Is the code option within the scope of the building deptartment's ability to enforce and eduate? 
    • What is the ease of administration?
    • What type of buildings does this cover?
    • What are the negative impacts or unintended consequences? 
    • What is the cost burden?

    More information on the code options as they relate to new construction within the city can be found in the "Energy Code Stakeholder Workshop #2" folder under "Documents". 

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  • Participate in the Forum for Existing Buildings

    by Marissa, almost 2 years ago
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    For comments, open-ended questions, and thoughts on the following points from Workshop #3:

    • Strategies to link efficiency upgrades to triggers already enforced by code.
    • Implementation of a benchmarking and building performance standard in the City of Golden.
    • The financial challenges to update existing buildings and tolerance to sustainability fees or taxes to help fund, with a strategic eye towards regularly updating and refining funding mechanisms to align with ROIs of specific investments.
    • Preferences for financial and regulatory support to upgrade existing buildings  

    More information on the strategies as they relate to existing buildings within the city can be found in the "Energy Code Stakeholder Workshop #3" folder under "Documents". 

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Page last updated: 13 Mar 2024, 02:21 PM