City of Golden Codes Consulting: Building Policy Roadmap
Lotus developed the City of Golden’s Code Roadmap after the completion of the City of Golden Code Consulting Project as a joint effort with Iconergy Ltd. The roadmap lays out the recommendations and timelines to address greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency in the City of Golden’s built environment, with the ultimate goal of helping to achieve the City’s 2030 Sustainability Goals. The recommendations for new and existing buildings were informed by a series of stakeholder workshops which included industry experts, sector representatives, and consultants that evaluated a total of six code packages from January to July 2022. Lotus was the primary facilitator for each stakeholder workshop and worked with the group to review code standards the City could consider to meet its building goals.
The final recommendation for building code and existing building policy, derived from the stakeholder process, included the following high-level directives.
For new buildings, adopt the 2021 IECC and the New Buildings Institute (NBI): All-Electric Code Overlay with a requirement for onsite PV for new residential construction.
For existing buildings, develop a building benchmarking program and subsequent performance standard for existing buildings and address code and incentive gaps for existing buildings with expanded programming and incentive opportunities.
The Lotus team facilitated the stakeholder workshops and provided technical assistance in analyzing code packages, GHG emissions, and strategic planning to meet Golden’s GHG reduction goals.