Benefits of Building IQ
Conserve energy
Help manage your building
Identify short- and long-term savings
Support global climate action
Market as a green building
Inform City of Aspen energy programs
Benchmarking
One of the most effective ways to save energy and water in buildings is to benchmark — that is, to measure and compare a building’s energy to similar buildings, past consumption, or a reference performance level. It’s also the first step to improving meeting future Building Performance Standards. The simple act of benchmarking can decrease energy use by 2 – 3% per year, a modest but meaningful reduction. Building IQ uses Energy Star’s benchmarking platform, Portfolio Manager.
Building IQ Benchmarking FAQs
In addition to it soon being a law in Aspen, there are multiple reasons benchmarking benefits you and the community. Through the Building IQ program, building owners can expect to:
There is no charge to the building owners or to the City of Aspen to use the Energy Star Portfolio Manager platform to benchmark.
To benchmark a property, building owners will need to take three steps:
We are hopeful that the program will begin in June 2022. City-owned buildings will be the first properties to comply, then large commercial properties will be phased in based on square footage, with large multi-family buildings to follow. A final timeline will be determined upon Aspen City Council’s anticipated program adoption in April 2022.
View the timeline here:
Owners of large commercial properties (20K sq. ft. +) will be the first properties required to benchmark, with an anticipated due date of December 1, 2022. Smaller commercial properties and multi-family properties will be phased in over time. If you still have questions regarding when you will need to benchmark your building, visit www.aspen.gov/buildingiq
The easiest way to benchmark your building correctly is to fill out this form and let our building science experts take it from there. Having CORE benchmark your building is 100% FREE and includes the following services:
We recommend letting CORE benchmark your building for FREE, but we have you covered if you want to get it done on your own. Check out these helpful videos from our friends at Energize Denver on how to use ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager to benchmark your building.
Once you understand how your building uses water and energy, it’s time to start using resources more wisely. That is where Building Performance Standards–AKA BPS–come into play.
BPS is a policy that requires building owners to meet performance targets for energy use by actively improving their buildings over time. Since the majority of commercial and residential building stock that will be standing in 2050 is already built, BPS will help accelerate carbon-reduction at the rate necessary to meet local and national climate action goals. From a building owner’s perspective, BPS provides flexibility as owners can use whatever technologies and operational strategies they decide are most effective and economical to meet the target. Multiple state and local governments have passed BPS policies, including Washington D.C., New York City, St. Louis, and Colorado and Washington states.
The BPS policy details for the City of Aspen have not been defined, yet. We are interested in getting feedback from community stakeholders and will be starting stakeholder engagement beginning in 2022 with the goal of collecting input to implement policies the following year, in 2023. Technical and financial resources will be available to help aid in the process.
CORE’s Commercial Path to Zero is a step-by-step guide for improving building performance. Start with simple measures like upgrading your lighting and adding controls then work your down the path all the way to electrifying everything and powering your building with renewable energy.
…or just reach out to Mike Bouchet. He will visit your property and create a simple, cost-effective plan customized for your building.
Building IQ Ordinance enactment: June 1, 2022