Denver, Colorado

Denver, the “Mile High” city, is located at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and is the fastest growing city and county in the state, with over 700,000 residents as of 2026. To mitigate its climate impact, Denver is decarbonizing existing buildings and homes, which account for nearly two-thirds of citywide greenhouse gas emissions. Denver has also committed to making all new and existing buildings “Zero Emission with Grid Scale Renewables” – which the City defines as highly efficient, all-electric, grid-flexible, and powered by 100% renewable electricity.

Denver Programs, Policies, and Strategies

To support the transition to zero emissions, Denver voters approved a 2020 ballot initiative to create a $40-50 million annual Climate Protection Fund. Half of the funding is intended to prioritize the communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Denver also convened the Energize Denver Task Force to design a building performance policy and supporting incentives for existing buildings, culminating in the adoption of the groundbreaking Energize Denver policy in 2021. The policy mandates that large multifamily and commercial buildings over 25,000 square feet must meet specific energy efficiency requirements based on building type. For smaller buildings between 5,000-24,999 square feet, the policy prescribes one-time energy upgrades to be completed between 2025 and 2027. 

BEI has worked closely with Denver’s Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency (CASR) staff since 2021 to design programs that help ensure equitable and effective implementation of the Energize Denver policy. BEI helped CASR design a building electrification incentive program funded by the Climate Protection Fund that prioritized funding and technical assistance for Denver’s “Equity Priority Buildings” and communities. Additionally, BEI supported Denver’s Healthy Homes Program, a Retrofit Navigator program that provided affordable energy efficiency and electrification upgrades for small and mid-sized residential buildings while improving residents' health and air quality. CASR staff are also collaborating with Denver's Department of Housing and Stability to integrate electrification incentives into affordable housing projects, delivering the benefits of decarbonization to more residents living in affordable housing. BEI supported this work with a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to assess housing affordability impacts from Denver’s policies.

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Regional Programs and Strategies

In In 2025, BEI advised Denver, the City of Boulder, and the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) on the implementation of Power Ahead Colorado, an initiative funded by a federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant that invests close to $200 million in building electrification and decarbonization in the Denver metropolitan area. BEI helped DRCOG staff design a full-service Retrofit Navigator program for low-income disadvantaged communities (LIDAC) across the region, which will provide free holistic home retrofit and upgrade services to at least 1,600 buildings by 2030. 

BEI also supported DRCOG's regional building policy alignment efforts by conducting research on the costs, benefits, and equity impacts of building electrification policies, with a focus on protecting low-income and naturally occurring affordable housing. This work will inform DRCOG's Building Policy Collaborative, a peer-to-peer network of local government officials from across DRCOG’s 58 member jurisdictions. The Building Policy Collaborative will evaluate, align, and implement building policies across these jurisdictions to create regional consistency, ease in permitting, and compliance for trades and industry. The goal is to catalyze progress needed to reach a region-wide zero-emission built environment by 2050.

Denver’s track record of ambitious policies and major investments to under-invested communities, along with planned regional program buildout in 2026, will allow the region to meet the urgency of the moment while delivering healthier homes and cleaner air to its residents.