Roadmap to Net Zero Buildings

Update: City Council consideration - June 11, 2024

The Community Sustainability Advisory Board and Planning Commission met on April 24, April 25, May 1 and May 3 to refine a joint recommendation for an Energy Code proposal. Recordings of the meetings are available on the city website.

• The Northwest Metropolitan Regional Energy Code Cohort Electric-Preferred Code with Explanatory Comments
• What Does “Readiness” Mean for Golden? A Guide to the State’s Requirements for Solar, EV, and Electric Readiness
• A Code Comparison of Electric-Preferred Codes in Other Communities
• City of Golden Net Zero Energy Building Codes Project: A History and Timeline, February 2024

Update: Public Meeting - Feb. 29, 2024

Members of the Community Sustainability Advisory Board and Planning Commission met on Thursday, February 29, 2024 to discuss the results of a memo from the City’s consultant, New Buildings Institute. Members received an analysis of recent court decisions and potential code pathways for Golden to consider in achieving its energy sustainability goals.

Update: Proposal Draft Available

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

• Public comments (received through 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. Among those recommendations are strategies to reduce natural gas usage and to improve energy efficiency for non-residential buildings.

Read the full list of task force recommendations.

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.