Boulder, Colorado

City Overview

Boulder, Colorado has a full-time population of just over 100,000 residents and serves as a regional employment center for more than 50,000 additional people working in a variety of academic, research, and business sectors. Boulder has long been a leader in climate action, making great strides over the last two decades, but the vast majority of its nearly 50,000 buildings were built and continue to use gas for space and water heating. To achieve Boulder’s commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2035, the City is developing strategies to equitably accelerate the transition for all buildings away from fossil fuels.

Boulder Programs, Policies, and Strategies 

Boulder launched one of the nation's first building electrification campaigns in 2018, which resulted in a 3-fold increase in heat pump installations within a few years. However, in assessing the program results, Boulder found that the majority of their rebates went to climate-conscious single-family homeowners, indicating a need to broaden the appeal of building electrification and support the transition for other household types.

Boulder began working with BEI in 2019 to design complementary programs that will serve more diverse populations, pulling from concepts of “Targeted Universalism” to inform the approach. Based on this work, BEI worked with Boulder to identify and assess inclusive financing options, ultimately focusing on utility-led tariffed on-bill financing as a promising option for low- and moderate-income customers and renters. 

In late 2022, Boulder voters approved a new Climate Tax, which combines and replaces two previous local taxes, and is estimated to collect $6.5 million per year for city-level climate work. Since then, BEI has been working with Boulder on developing Boulder’s next generation of building decarbonization policies and strategies to accelerate equitable building electrification across the city, culminating in a Building Electrification Roadmap that Boulder will publish in 2025. BEI also supported identification of  Boulder’s proposed neighborhood-scale electrification pilot and assessed the implications of the local utility’s obligation to serve policy. Additionally, BEI researched policy options that are less likely to trigger Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) preemption, including building performance standards and appliance emissions standards, setting Boulder up for enacting future ambitious policies that will continue its climate leadership. 

Regional Programs and Strategies

In 2025, BEI is advising Boulder, Denver, and Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) on the implementation of the Zero Emission Buildings Initiative, funded by the region’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, which invests close to $200 million in building electrification and decarbonization along the Front Range. BEI is advising and participating in a community co-creation process to design a full-service decarbonization program for low-income disadvantaged communities (LIDAC) across the region, which aims to provide free holistic home retrofits and upgrade services to at least 1,600 buildings.  

Through Boulder's long history of innovation and continued collaboration with regional agencies and partners, Boulder and its partners are in the process of creating a blueprint for equitable building decarbonization at scale along Colorado's Front Range region and beyond.