The New Buildings Institute (NBI) is excited to lead the Building Policy Collaborative (BPC) research project for the Denver Regional Council of Governments’ (DRCOG) Power Ahead Colorado Program. Awarded in 2024, Power Ahead Colorado brings nearly $200 million in federal funding to the DRCOG region focused on reducing climate pollution from the building sector. These funds are used to support local jurisdictions in development of plans, policies, and projects to further their efforts toward building decarbonization, establish a working policy collective to address local issues, and fund research and development of building decarb solutions.

Under the research portion of the program, and in partnership with Touchstone IQ and the Colorado Health Institute, our team will establish a region-wide, building-level energy use and greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Data from this inventory will support analyses of potential policy pathways to promote electrification and fuel switching across the building stock, at different granularity (jurisdictional vs county, etc.), and forward in time toward regional and state-level carbon neutrality targets. Additionally, analysis will consider the cost and health impacts of these actions to communities throughout the region, as well as how electrification may impact the utility grid over time. Finally, specific priority building type retrofit packages will be developed to support high-impact players in the building sector to transition their buildings’ energy use. Stay tuned for more developments as findings are compiled and insights are learned.