Hillary Dobos 9/10/25 Hillary Dobos 9/10/25

Metropolitan Regional Building Policy Cohort

Roadmap to Zero Emissions New Construction and Energy Code Amendment Package

Colorado’s local governments are in a unique position to address their greatest source of carbon emissions: the built environment. In the Denver metropolitan region, the built environment is responsible for 52% of regional greenhouse gas emissions and jurisdictions have set goals to reduce emissions from buildings to protect health and safety. Building energy codes in Colorado are adopted and enforced at the local level, usually based on International Energy Conservation Codes (IECC), but these are not sufficient to meet local and state goals intended to protect residents from the impacts of air pollution and climate change.

Roadmap to Zero Emissions New Construction

A Roadmap to Zero Emissions New Construction was developed in 2025 by a cohort of 15 jurisdictions in the Denver metropolitan region and recommends a phased approach to energy code policies for new construction and major remodels to achieve zero emissions by 2030. By implementing these policies consistently, we can ease compliance for healthy buildings that ensure no one - residents, businesses, tenants, and workforce - is left behind in the transition towards clean electric technologies.

Energy Code Amendment Package

The cohort is striving for regional consistency, and while jurisdictions are starting at various points along the pathway towards zero emissions new construction, they are increasingly converging towards all-electric or electric-preferred codes. A key point along the path is a code amendment package based on the 2024 IECC that exceeds Colorado’s Model Low Energy and Carbon Code in terms of emissions in several areas.

Logos of the project team and of the members of the cohort.

Additional Resources

Roadmap Appendix A: Collaborative Members and Background. Includes background on the cohort’s work in Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Roadmap Appendix B: Additional Code Elements. Includes additional policy mechanisms beyond energy codes, such as embodied carbon, waste, and water use, that jurisdictions can consider adopting.
Roadmap Fact Sheet. A three page, highly visual, executive summary of the Roadmap.
Cohort Amendment Package Fact Sheet. A two page easily digestible summary of the cohort amendments.
Metro Cohort Amendments - Custom ICC Code: coming soon!

Contact Info

The Roadmap and code amendment package are available for any community to customize and adopt. If you are interested in these or if you need access to any of the adoption support materials please get in touch with us!

Cohort Background

The cohort began in 2021 when a group of eight communities in the Denver metropolitan region convened to collaborate on adopting the 2021 IECC with supporting amendments that better prepare a building for future installations of rooftop solar, electric vehicles (EVs), electric appliances, and electric space and water heating systems. A regional code amendment package was developed and adopted by most of the eight communities with support from Lotus, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, and Shums Coda Associates. This work was funded by a Department of Local Affairs grant and created a framework in the state for regional collaboration on building codes which has been deployed in other areas of Colorado.

Phase 2 of the project began in 2022 with an expanded cohort of ten communities with a goal of creating a roadmap of ranked local, achievable, affordable, and equitable policies and strategies to reach the goal of net zero new construction by 2030 for the region. The roadmap was written and designed by Lotus, with support from SWEEP and Shums Coda. This roadmap laid a foundation for the Roadmap to Zero Emissions New Construction.

Lotus 9/4/25 Lotus 9/4/25

A Regional Roadmap for a New Net Zero: Eagle River and Roaring Fork Valleys

Redefining Net Zero and Aligning New Construction Codes in the Eagle River and Roaring Fork Valleys

Lotus provided project management and facilitation for the Eagle County Code Cohort in two phases. The first phase was focused on engaging with jurisdictions within Eagle County to align on consistent above building code amendments. The second phase, expanded our regional scope and focused on developing a region-wide Net Zero Roadmap for building decarbonization with communities within Eagle, Pitkin, and Garfield counties.

Read the Full Roadmap

Phase 1

Phase 1 of this project included facilitation of three meetings with representatives from each Eagle County jurisdiction to create a set of above code standards, including solar-readiness, EV-readiness, and electric-readiness, that jurisdictions could adopt alongside the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Energy affordability, GHG reductions, and the needs of individual communities were discussed within the cohort meetings, and the consensus was reached for the recommended code package.

The scope of work included code package development along with individualized community support to help each partner community with their code adoption process. Lotus worked with consultant partners SWEEP and Mozingo Code Group throughout the project to develop the code package for the region along with supporting materials such as fact sheets, customized presentations, training materials, and other individualized support requested by each community. Lotus and the consultant team attended council meetings and study sessions with staff to ensure the code package was understood and could be adopted by each leadership council. Finally, Lotus facilitated a public engagement process for the new code package which included an informational webinar and community survey to understand community concerns and support for the new code package.

After completion of Phase 1, Lotus received positive feedback from participating local governments and the local workforce that this effort was successful and useful. This feedback inspired the regional partners to continue the collaboration to build a Roadmap to achieve net zero new construction by 2030—a shared Climate Action Plan goal of most of the Eagle County communities. Recognizing that Eagle County and neighboring communities like those in the Roaring Fork Valley share a workforce, the scope of the Cohort collaboration was expanded from Eagle County to include communities in the Roaring Fork Valley (in both Pitkin and Garfield Counties) that were interested in aligning on future energy code updates and a regional definition for net zero.

Phase 2

For Phase 2, Lotus convened a Cohort of building department and sustainability staff, sustainability and building code experts, and local utility company representatives from communities within the Roaring Fork and Eagle River Valleys through a series of collaborative meetings to develop a Net Zero New Construction Roadmap (Roadmap) for residential and commercial buildings. Lotus worked within the Cohort meetings and through individual community meetings to ensure the approaches outlined in the Roadmap met the needs of each community, and felt achievable for each staff team. The driving force for this work is to support the mountain regions in reducing and eliminating carbon emissions from new buildings to achieve climate goals, as well as strive towards a regionally-consistent building code that supports the local green building workforce as well as overall housing affordability and resiliency.

Phase 2 included the creation of a consensus-based Roadmap to net zero new construction, facilitation of key stakeholders in the region, and support of local government staff in adopting the Roadmap, which will guide the next six years of new construction code standards to achieve local climate goals. Lotus is currently working with each local government to adopt the Roadmap by resolution and apply for funding to support the ongoing implementation of the Roadmap from now until 2030.

A highlight of Phase 2 was our industry engagement. We hosted six regional Listen & Learn events with over 100 attendees that represented contractors, mechanical engineers, architects, home builders, utility representatives, energy efficiency service companies, building code officials, plan reviewers, and inspectors, and more. These sessions provided key insights that were passed along to the local government staff and presented to each council that shared a desire from the private sector to see regionally aligned building energy codes. Attendees also shared key insights into ongoing challenges for electrification and workforce availability. These insights proved invaluable during elected leadership discussions and provided elected officials confidence in their ability to adopt and implement the Roadmap in partnership with the building industry.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

Colorado Public Utilities Commission

Impact Study of Investor Owned Utilities’ Tariffs, Policies, and Practices on Beneficial Electrification and Distributed Energy Resources

Lotus supported the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in conducting a thorough review of the State of Colorado’s Investor-Owned Utilities (IOU) electric utility tariffs, interconnection and line extension policies, programs, and cost allocation principles to determine if they pose any barriers to beneficial electrification and the implementation of distributed energy resources (DERs). The two IOUs evaluated were Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy. The project involved data requests to the IOUs to better understand their tariffs, interconnection and line extension policies, programs, and cost allocation principles. In addition, Lotus facilitated several external stakeholder focus groups to learn from utility stakeholders how they perceive the programs, policies, tariffs, etc and posing barriers to electrification and the deployment of DERs. Following engagement with external stakeholders in both Xcel and Black Hills Energy territories, Lotus compiled a report summarizing the input they received on barriers and identified recommendations for the PUC to consider to help remove barriers for electrification and DERs in the utility service territory. As part of this project, Lotus also researched utility best practices for several of the identified barriers and presented these to the PUC in the final report.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

Pitkin County, CO | GHG Inventories and Regional Summaries

**County and Municipal-level Community-Wide GHG Inventories and Regional Summaries**

Lotus developed 2019 and 2020 community GHG emissions inventories for Pitkin County, the City of Aspen, Snowmass Village, the Town of Basalt, and Unincorporated Pitkin County. In 2024, Lotus worked with Pitkin County again to update the County-wide greenhouse gas inventory as well as the Aspen municipal inventory. Lotus worked with CLEER to write summary reports with findings from the updated inventory. Lotus also completed a 2024 municipal GHG emissions inventory for Pitkin County, following the Local Government Operations Protocol. Lotus managed the data collection and workbook creation for the inventory. An inventory management plan detailing methodology was also created for the client. Lotus and Pitkin County are collaborating with ICLEI to pilot ICLEI’s ClearPath 2.0 software to help train the County on the software and to provide process and technical improvement feedback to ICLEI.

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City and County of Denver | Refrigerants Impact Study

Downtown Denver aerial view. — Refrigerants Impact Study

Lotus conducted detailed policy and emissions impacts analyses to better understand the impacts of increased refrigerant use in residential settings as a result of replacing fossil-based heating and the replacement of existing cooling systems or installation of new cooling systems. Lotus worked with the CASR team to identify potential scenarios of changing fossil fuel and heat pump technology for both existing and future residential buildings. Deliverables included a final model that could be adjusted to account for future changes, documentation of methods and assumptions, and a final report. The project was completed on-time and within budget.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

City and County of Denver | E-Bike and Home Energy Rebate Program

E Bike station. — E-Bike and Home Energy Rebate Program

Lotus contracted with Aptim and the City and County of Denver to conduct an impact analysis of the City’s e-bike and home energy rebate programs. Lotus conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to understand perspectives on program success, education, outreach strategies, and program challenges. Additionally, Lotus developed a series of surveys for each program targeted at program participants, rebate non-redeemers, and members of the community who had not engaged with the program. The purpose of these surveys was to identify key challenges, barriers, and opportunities from the programs. Lotus launched and analyzed the results of these surveys, developing digestible data visualizations that reported key findings. A slide deck was developed that included the survey results and maps tracking the spatial distribution of rebate program participation and key equity considerations. Finally, an impact summary report was developed highlighting findings from the interviews, surveys, and data analysis.
In 2024, Aptim contracted with Lotus to update the analysis completed in 2023. This update included developing a new series of maps tracking e-bike and home energy rebates using program data from 2023. Lotus developed a slide deck mapping rebate recipients by neighborhood, council district, and census tract. Maps showing the change in rebate recipients over time and maps overlaying rebate uptake with key equity data (language, income, heat vulnerability, etc.) were developed. Additionally, contractor participation in the e-bike and home energy rebate programs was mapped, highlighting areas with gaps in participation or contractors with limited participation. Finally, Lotus conducted a series of interviews with contractors identified as diverse suppliers. These interviews were conducted to understand any barriers or challenges that contractors face in the program and any opportunities to engage additional diverse suppliers.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

Fort Collins, Colorado | One Water Facilitation

Waterway in Fort Collins. — **One Water Facilitation**

Lotus has partnered with Fort Collins for two distinct projects with broad scope of engagement. The first project was for the Water Efficiency Plan Engagement and the Under-Resourced Buildings Engagement. For the former The City of Fort Collins partnered with Lotus to engage stakeholders during the development of the municipal utility’s Water Efficiency Plan. The purpose of engagement was to 1) understand which water conservation goals and strategies are most appropriate for the community and 2) understand the community’s needs and priorities, particularly those of equity-priority communities. The project team developed and executed a multifaceted engagement plan that included facilitating workshops with City staff, hiring community consultants to reach equity-priority communities, attending or creating community meetings and events, and developing a community-wide survey that was translated into Spanish.
In addition to utilizing a similar process outlined for Denver above, Lotus focused on engaging the pre-existing Climate Equity Committee, established from the City’s foundational climate action plan, Our Climate Future. The Committee agreed to hear from Utilities staff three times throughout the process and provided feedback on the engagement process. Lotus deployed this engagement best-practice to reduce the burden of participation on equity-priority communities, working instead with the set of citizens who had already agreed to serve the City.
Some of this group was tapped to provide feedback on an equity evaluation process to assess the strategies for their potential equity impacts that Lotus co-created. To create the evaluation, Lotus shared the draft process with eight community leaders and sought initial feedback to shape the final tool. Then, based on the feedback from these community leaders, Lotus updated the evaluation process to encourage the City to score the strategies in collaboration with community stakeholders. The Lotus team met with the Climate Equity Committee to score key Water Efficiency Plan strategies, per this best practice, to ensure the final analysis foregrounded the Fort Collins community’s priorities.
The equity evaluation methodology analyzes strategies based on the overall benefit to equity, assigning each strategy a score on a high-medium-low scale. The overall score estimates each strategy’s benefit to equity based on the assessment of potential impact on the five desired equity outcomes, including resilience and co-benefits, accessible participation, partnerships and investment, water burden, and community priority. These priorities were drawn directly from feedback from engagement, notably the informational interviews with community leaders and the community survey. A “high” score indicated the strategy had the potential to improve equity or serve equity-priority communities; a “low” score meant the strategy was unlikely to lead to better equity outcomes or does not serve equity-priority communities. This methodology is a pioneering example of a municipal utility’s efforts to incorporate equity into their strategic planning. In crafting the initial draft, Lotus could not find a similar evaluation process deployed elsewhere.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

Town of Vail | Greenhouse Gas Inventory

**Greenhouse gas inventory**

Lotus worked with the Town of Vail to complete a 2023 greenhouse gas inventory for the community, as well as reconcile and update previous inventories to demonstrate progress on emission reductions. The 2023 inventory work was complemented by the development of a business-as-usual forecast of emissions. Using those combined data products, Lotus engaged Town staff to develop policies and strategies to model and estimate future emission reductions. Finally, Lotus provided support for Town staff to develop and update presentations and briefings for the Town Manager and Town Council.

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

JSI | Sustainability Plan

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Boulder, Colorado | Open Space & Mountain Parks Department

Boulder OSMP GHG Emissions Dashboard image. — Greenhouse gas inventories

Lotus worked with the OSMP department to create department-specific greenhouse gas emissions inventories, a business-as-usual GHG model, and a GHG reduction strategy model for 10 top strategies. In addition to the data work, Lotus also created a **dashboard** and **storymap** in ArcGIS online to communicate the results of the data work and to highlight the sustainability work that the department is undertaking. A final report was also written to provide more detail on results of the data work and to expand on the top GHG reduction strategies that were recommended to the department.

OSMP GHG Dashboard

OSMP Storymap

Flatirons in Boulder County. — **Trailhead Materials Embodied Carbon and Visitor Behavior Analysis**

Lotus worked with the OSMP department to complete a two-phase analysis. The first phase analyzed the embodied carbon of frequently used materials at the department’s trailheads. Lotus also developed a matrix with metrics such as durability, resilience to fires and floods, and other qualities to help the department make well-informed decisions on material choices when doing maintenance and construction at trailheads. The second phase analyzed strategies that are available to help reduce the emissions associated with visitor travel and waste production. A matrix was developed that rates strategies on metrics including cost, greenhouse gas impact, success of implementation, etc. One strategy that OSMP implemented was to install cameras at high traffic trailheads in order to reduce the high amount of vehicular transportation emissions during trailhead commuting and prevent trail deterioration. Trailhead cameras allow the public to view parking space availability at trailheads ahead of time and plan accordingly.
The trailhead cameras are publicly **available here.**

“Lotus’ work was essential in creating an approach for Climate Ready Trailheads. Their work has helped us to reconsider how we design trailheads, how we get visitors to the trailhead, and how we maintain our trailheads and access points.”

— City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Dept

Hillary Dobos 8/14/25 Hillary Dobos 8/14/25

Walking Mountains | Climate Action Plan Equity Analysis

Cover of Eagle County Climate Equity Plan — Walking mountains science center

Lotus conducted an equity analysis of climate action strategies and programs across Eagle County, Colorado. We worked directly with Walking Mountains staff who conducted community engagement. Lotus then analyzed the results of a bilingual, online survey and two focus groups held in Spanish. The feedback collected resulted in the **Climate Equity Plan** with strategies that specifically address equity-priority communities in the county.

Read the Climate Equity Plan

Hillary Dobos 8/13/25 Hillary Dobos 8/13/25

Clifton Sanitation District | Climate Action Plan

Clifton Sanitation district, CO

Clifton Sanitation District (CSD) contracted with Lotus Engineering and Sustainability, LLC (Lotus) to create its first greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and Climate Action Plan. Lotus created the GHG inventory utilizing custom inventory analysis spreadsheet tools that are compliant with the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories (GPC) and the Local Government Operations (LGO) Protocol. Once the team reviewed, analyzed, and leveraged the available data, Lotus conducted a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) on collected data to ensure that it aligned with best practices and industry knowledge.

CSD’s goal with this project was to complete a baseline GHG emission inventory to:

● Understand its climate action potential;

● Measure progress on sustainability investments and initiatives;

● Create an internal climate action report for board members and operational staff to use as a guide for implementation;

● Demonstrate which areas of CSD’s emissions have the most impact on the climate, and;

● Identify strategies to reduce these emissions.

The inventory results were then used to set targets for emissions reduction and mitigation strategies to meet the goal of a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, mainly centered around energy efficiency.

This report integrates the GHG inventory data with emissions and reduction pathways. It includes identified GHG reduction goals that are science-based and time-bound along with a prioritized list of strategies that Clifton Sanitation District can take immediately.

Hillary Dobos 8/13/25 Hillary Dobos 8/13/25

Missoula | GHG Inventories

Scenic view of Missoula, Montana. — Missoula, Montana

Lotus built off of the great work from previous greenhouse gas inventories at the City of Missoula to conduct a municipal and a community-wide greenhouse gas inventory for the year 2023. Along with these inventories, Lotus created an inventory management plan (IMP) documenting all data sources and methods used in the inventory. The IMP also included instructions for updating inventories enabling Missoula to develop their own inventories in the future.

Hillary Dobos 8/13/25 Hillary Dobos 8/13/25

Chaffee County, Colorado | Sustainable Development Plan

Aerial view of Salida, Colorado. — Chaffee County Sustainable Development Plan

Lotus worked with Chaffee County to create the first Sustainable Development Plan (SDP) for the County. This plan was designed to align with existing community plans, identify prioritized goals for sustainable development, determine immediate action steps to implement those goals, and create success tracking metrics. The Sustainable Development Plan included several key sectors of focus including Equity, Resilience, Water, Development, Energy, Transportation, Waste and Resources, Working Landscapes, Social Systems, and Recreation. Lotus conducted engagement with community experts in each focus area to inform the strategies and worked closely with a Steering Committee to review and finalize the plan.

Hillary Dobos 8/13/25 Hillary Dobos 8/13/25

Winter Park, Colorado | GHG Inventories and Climate Action Planning

The village in Winter Park, Colorado. — Town of Winter Park, Colorado

Lotus worked with the Town of Winter Park to complete the first ever greenhouse gas emissions inventories for the town government and the community. In addition to creating these inventories, Lotus developed a business-as-usual emissions model and is modeling several emissions reductions strategies to aid in the Town’s development of its first Climate Action Plan. Due to the small size of the Town, many innovative methods were used to collect and manipulate data to make it relevant to the Town, such as working closely with Winter Park Resort and utilizing Streetlight vehicle miles traveled data.
Lotus also worked with the Town to complete its first ever Climate Action Plan. This will involve the development of a climate risk and vulnerability assessment, additional GHG emissions reduction strategy modeling, cost modeling, and strategy prioritization. Prioritization of the strategies will take into account factors such as cost to implement, GHG emissions impact, funding sources/availability, and equity impacts.

Hillary Dobos 8/13/25 Hillary Dobos 8/13/25

CDPHE | Water Quality Fee Setting Facilitation

Colorado dEPARTMENT OF pUBLIC hEALTH AND eNVIRONMENT

Lotus has been working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to facilitate a multi-year stakeholder engagement process to prepare the Water Quality Control Division for two rulemakings. As mandated by a bill passed in 2023, the Division must transfer their water quality fees from statute into regulation and update the drinking water and clean water fee structures to account for inflationary impacts and new service requirements.

For this project, Lotus has helped the Division organize its stakeholder engagement efforts and develop tools and processes to work towards consensus on stakeholder feedback, improve transparency in the Division’s decision-making, and help stakeholders new to the process get up to speed quickly. Lotus led monthly large stakeholder group meetings, including preparation of stakeholder communications, meeting agendas, presentations, minutes, and summaries. For the 2024 rulemaking process, Lotus also supported the Division’s bimonthly stakeholder subgroup meetings by providing guidance and feedback on meeting agendas and presentations, as well as taking minutes and providing meeting summaries to post publicly.

Ultimately this work culminated in Lotus assisting the Division in their preparations for the 2024 and 2025 rulemaking processes, management of a diverse array of stakeholders, and communication of a complex, technical subject matter.