City and County of Denver
| Energize Denver
Spring 2017 - Current
Project Details:
City: Denver Colorado
Size: 10,286 buildings
Sq Ft Affected: 462,575,933
Our Services:
Automated Building Report Tracking
Help Desk and Communication Tracking
Automated Reporting and Score Cards
Online Interactive Mapping
Energize Denver has grown from a 2016 benchmarking ordinance into one of the country’s most comprehensive local building decarbonization programs. What began as a requirement to measure and report energy use has evolved into a broader framework for improving building performance, reducing emissions, and advancing long-term compliance. Today, the program spans buildings as small as 5,000 square feet to Denver’s largest commercial and multifamily properties, with distinct pathways for large buildings, small buildings, industrial facilities, and buildings that need additional support. Over the past decade, the City and County of Denver has continued to refine the program to meet real-world implementation needs, creating a model that is both ambitious and practical.
NATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Denver was one of the first cities in the United States to adopt a building performance policy, and its program is now widely recognized as one of the most comprehensive and innovative local building decarbonization efforts in the country. The Institute for Market Transformation has also recognized Denver as the first city to adopt its “trajectory” model for building performance standards.
T H E T I M E L I N E
Energize Denver Development
Denver Large Buildings Program
The Denver Large Buildings Program is the core compliance pathway for buildings 25,000 square feet and larger. It moves beyond basic reporting to support long-term building improvement, with owners expected to track performance, understand how their buildings align with city requirements, and work toward building-specific targets based on use type. Over time, this structure has created a clearer path to compliance while helping Denver advance its broader climate goals. As the program has matured, the city has continued refining the large buildings pathway to improve usability, clarify expectations, and support progress across a wide range of properties.
Manufacturing, Agricultural, and Industrial Program
The Manufacturing, Agricultural and Industrial Program provides a tailored compliance pathway for buildings with significant process loads and more complex operating conditions. Recognizing that these facilities often do not fit neatly within traditional commercial building frameworks, Denver created a distinct track with more customized metrics, strategies, and compliance options. The city’s MAI guidance reflects the sophistication of the broader program, with alternate compliance pathways designed specifically for manufacturing, agricultural, and industrial buildings that fall outside typical commercial building profiles. In doing so, the program highlights Denver’s commitment to designing policy around how buildings actually function.
Denver Small Buildings Program
Recognizing that smaller properties often have different needs, Denver created the Small Buildings Program for buildings between 5,000 and 24,999 square feet. Rather than applying the same structure used for larger buildings, the city developed a more accessible pathway centered on practical energy improvements that are easier for smaller owners to understand and implement. This approach makes the program more manageable while still advancing Denver’s efficiency and emissions goals. The small buildings program reflects one of Energize Denver’s key strengths: its ability to adapt policy design to the scale, capacity, and operational realities of the buildings it regulates.
Compliance Assistance Program
The Compliance Assistance Programreflects Denver’s recognition that some building owners face unique challenges and may need additional support to fully participate in Energize Denver. Through this program, the city provides targeted resources to qualifying Equity Priority Buildings, helping those with the greatest needs better navigate compliance and access the benefits of energy improvements. Support can include benchmarking assistance, audits, planning, and connections to funding or technical resources. In this way, the program helps make Energize Denver more accessible to the buildings and communities that need it most.
T H E P A R T N E R S H I P
Touchstone IQ’s Role
As Energize Denver has grown from an early benchmarking initiative into one of the country’s leading building performance standards, the City of Denver has had to turn ambitious policy into a program that building owners can realistically navigate and implement. That has required refining requirements, responding to stakeholder feedback, expanding support pathways, and managing increasing operational complexity over time. Throughout that evolution, Touchstone IQ has helped support the systems, tools, and program structure needed to make that growth possible.
Software Innovation
As Energize Denver grew in scale and complexity, the City needed more than a back-end compliance database. It needed tools that could support program administration while giving building owners a clearer, more usable experience. The software developed to support the program has become central to how Energize Denver functions day to day. Key features include:
Touchstone IQ for Governments
Touchstone IQ for Governments serves as the operational backbone of the program, helping streamline implementation by bringing compliance tracking, outreach, and stakeholder engagement into one centralized system. For a program as complex as Energize Denver, this gives the City a more efficient way to manage building data, communications, and workflows while maintaining visibility across multiple program tracks. Customized modules for Building Performance Standards (BPS), Equity Priority Buildings (EPB), and Manufacturing, Agricultural, and Industrial (MAI) buildings allow the platform to reflect the distinct requirements, pathways, and support needs of each area. The result is a more organized, scalable approach to program administration as Energize Denver continues to evolve.
Touchstone IQ for Buildings
Touchstone IQ for Buildings extends this support further by helping connect compliance with building-specific technical insight. Based on the product capabilities reflected in the uploaded materials, this includes virtual audit and modeling functions that can support building analysis, energy performance review, and decarbonization planning. The materials also indicate support for analytical reporting, year-over-year performance tracking, and automated data quality flagging, all of which strengthen the implementation side of a building performance program.
The Building Owner Hub
The Building Owner Hub gives owners a single place to engage with the program, helping translate what can otherwise feel like a complex policy into a more structured and navigable process. Rather than relying on fragmented communications or disconnected compliance steps, the hub creates a more direct interface between the program and the people responsible for responding to it.
The Disclosure Map
The Disclosure Map helps make program data visible and accessible in a public-facing format. This creates a stronger transparency tool for the city while also making it easier to communicate building performance information in a way that is intuitive and geographically grounded. In practice, this supports a program model where disclosure is not buried in spreadsheets, but presented in a format that is easier for stakeholders to understand.
The BPS Calculator
The BPS Calculator helps turn policy requirements into something building owners can more readily interpret and act on. Rather than asking owners to sort through technical rules on their own, the calculator translates building performance requirements into a more practical planning tool. By supporting compliance forecasting and scenario modeling, the calculator helps owners evaluate how different improvement pathways may affect future performance and compliance outcomes. This gives building owners a clearer way to assess options, anticipate challenges, and make more informed decisions about timing, investments, and next steps.
Advanced Help Desk Support
A program like Energize Denver generates a high volume of questions from building owners, ranging from deadlines, eligibility, and account access to more complex issues involving data quality, exemptions, alternative compliance pathways, and building-specific circumstances. Managing that level of engagement is a critical part of successful program delivery.
Touchstone IQ has supported Denver by providing the help desk structure needed to manage this complexity at scale. Each year, the program generates thousands of calls and a significant volume of email communication, all of which must be handled clearly, consistently, and with appropriate escalation when city review is needed. Managed through the Touchstone IQ for Governments platform, this support gives the city a centralized view of communications, ticket history, and overall activity, strengthening both the building owner experience and the program’s day-to-day operations.
Technical Assistance
For many building owners, compliance is not only about understanding the rules. It is about understanding what to do next. Moving from benchmarking data to a realistic compliance strategy often requires technical interpretation, planning support, and guidance that is specific to the building itself.
Touchstone IQ has helped Denver meet that need by supporting a range of technical assistance services, including benchmarking and data verification, virtual energy assessments, onsite audits, compliance planning, and financial coaching. These services help building owners translate policy requirements into practical action and create a more direct bridge between compliance and implementation. In a program as complex as Energize Denver, that kind of support is essential. It helps owners move forward with greater clarity and gives the city a stronger foundation for achieving real results.
Program Results
T H E I M P A C T
Because commercial and multifamily buildings account for roughly 49% of Denver’s emissions, Energize Denver plays a critical role in the City’s path to net zero by 2040. The program is already delivering measurable results, demonstrating how building performance policy can translate into real progress through high compliance, emissions reductions, and cost savings.
“Denver was one of the first cities in the United States to adopt a building performance policy, and we’re committed to keeping that standard in place while making sure every owner has a fair path to comply.”