Who sends Building Performance Colorado notices?

The Air Pollution Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which enforces C.R.S. 25-7-142 and Regulation 28.

What is the penalty for not benchmarking?

Up to $577 for a first violation and up to $2,300 for each subsequent violation.

Can I ignore the notice if I think my building is exempt?

No. Respond by the date in the notice and explain the exemption. Exemptions cover unconditioned storage, parking, hangars, majority manufacturing or industrial use, one to three unit residential, and some agricultural buildings.

Got a benchmarking notice from CDPHE? Here is what to do

What a Building Performance Colorado enforcement notice means, how to confirm your building's status, and how to resolve it before penalties escalate.

Updated 2026-09-19. Facts checked against C.R.S. 25-7-142, Regulation 28, and the Colorado Energy Office. Not legal advice.

CDPHE's Air Pollution Control Division enforces Building Performance Colorado, and it has started sending notices to owners of covered buildings that have not submitted a benchmarking report or paid the fees. A notice is not a fine by itself. It is the step before one, and the fastest way to make it go away is to file.

First, confirm the building and its status

Search the address on the homepage. The page for the building shows its CO Building ID, which should match the notice, and which programs apply. Then log in to the BEAM portal, claim the building if nobody at your organization has, and check whether a report exists for the year the notice covers. Buildings change hands and property managers change, so a surprising number of notices are for buildings that were simply never claimed.

Second, read the response date and keep it

The notice states what CDPHE believes is missing and a date to respond by. Treat that date as the real deadline, even if the annual November 1 date is further out. If the building is exempt, say so in writing with the reason. If it is covered, the response is the report itself.

Third, file

The report goes through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager into BEAM, with the $100 program fee, the $400 Building Decarbonization Enterprise fee, and the progress survey. Our reporting guide walks through the steps. If you do not have twelve months of whole-building utility data yet, start that request with the utility now, because it is the slowest part.

Penalties are up to $577 for a first violation and up to $2,300 for each violation after that. Each unfiled year can be a separate violation, so an unaddressed notice gets more expensive, not less.

If you are in Denver

A state notice does not cover the city's Energize Denver ordinance, which has its own June 1 benchmarking deadline and its own penalties. A Denver building of 50,000 square feet or more has two filings.

When to bring in help

If the data is a mess, the building has multiple meters or tenants, or the notice covers more than one year, an energy consultant can usually get the filing done in days and set the building up so it does not happen again. The consultation request at the bottom of any building page reaches a Colorado firm that does this work.

Common questions

Who sends Building Performance Colorado notices?: The Air Pollution Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), which enforces C.R.S. 25-7-142 and Regulation 28.
What is the penalty for not benchmarking?: Up to $577 for a first violation and up to $2,300 for each subsequent violation.
Can I ignore the notice if I think my building is exempt?: No. Respond by the date in the notice and explain the exemption. Exemptions cover unconditioned storage, parking, hangars, majority manufacturing or industrial use, one to three unit residential, and some agricultural buildings.