Oregon BPS Compliance Deadlines: What You Need to Know in 2025

Oregon’s Building Performance Standard operates on a carefully structured timeline designed to give building owners time to plan while establishing clear accountability for compliance. Understanding the deadlines and what they require is essential for successful compliance planning. Missing critical dates can result in financial penalties, increased compliance costs, and operational complications.

The Two-Tier Compliance System

Rather than creating a single compliance deadline that applies to all buildings, Oregon’s BPS uses a two-tier system. This approach allows larger and more energy-intensive buildings to address compliance first, creating a phased approach that avoids overwhelming the market with simultaneous demand for energy audits and improvements.

Tier 1 buildings face a compliance deadline of January 1, 2028. These are typically larger buildings or those with higher energy consumption profiles. Most office buildings over 50,000 square feet fall into Tier 1, as do many retail centers and hotels of significant size.

Tier 2 buildings have until January 1, 2030 to achieve compliance. These typically include smaller buildings within the covered threshold (35,000 to 50,000 square feet) or those with lower baseline energy consumption. Many apartment complexes fall into Tier 2, as do some office buildings and industrial facilities on the smaller end of the threshold.

Your building’s tier classification is determined by the Oregon Department of Energy based on benchmarking data. As a building owner, you don’t get to choose your tier; it’s assigned based on your property’s characteristics.

Benchmarking: The Critical First Step

The timeline for BPS compliance actually begins with benchmarking, not with audit completion. Benchmarking is the process of collecting, documenting, and submitting your building’s actual energy consumption data to the Oregon Department of Energy.

Benchmarking started in January 2025 for all buildings subject to the BPS. This is not optional and not something you can delay. Building owners must submit benchmarking data for the 2024 calendar year by the deadline established by ODOE. For most buildings, this deadline is in spring 2025.

If you have not yet submitted benchmarking data for your building, this should be your immediate priority. Benchmarking data is used to establish your building’s baseline energy performance and to determine whether your building already meets the energy performance standard. It’s also used to classify your building into Tier 1 or Tier 2.

What If My Building Already Meets the Performance Standard?

An important possibility to understand: some buildings may already meet Oregon’s energy performance targets based on their current energy consumption. If your building’s benchmarking data shows that it already meets the applicable energy performance standard, you may not be required to complete a full ASHRAE Level 2 audit.

However, you still must:

• Submit benchmarking data
• Have your compliance status formally verified
• Understand that ongoing benchmarking will be required to maintain compliance

Buildings that currently meet the standard should not become complacent. Energy performance can degrade due to equipment aging, operational changes, or maintenance issues. Continued monitoring and attention to building performance remains essential.

Energy Audits: When and Why They’re Required

For most buildings, completing an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit is a compliance requirement. However, the timing of the audit is flexible within the overall compliance timeline.

For Tier 1 buildings: Your audit should ideally be completed by 2027 at the latest, with 2028 being the absolute deadline. However, planning your audit now—in 2025—is strategically advantageous. Scheduling auditors in 2025 or early 2026 means you beat the rush. By 2027 and 2028, qualified energy auditors will likely be booked months in advance, and their rates may increase due to high demand.

For Tier 2 buildings: You have more flexibility, with audit completion needed by 2029 at the latest to allow time for improvement planning. However, the same logic applies: earlier completion means better auditor availability and potentially lower costs.

The Audit-to-Compliance Timeline

It’s crucial to understand that completing an audit is not the same as achieving compliance. The audit process typically takes 2-4 weeks from start to finish. However, after the audit is complete, you have information about what improvements your building needs to meet the energy performance standard.

If your building doesn’t currently meet the performance target, you then must implement improvements. These improvements can range from minor operational changes (optimizing HVAC schedules, improving maintenance protocols) to moderate capital investments (replacing inefficient equipment) to more substantial upgrades.

The timeline to implement improvements varies. Some operational improvements can be completed in weeks; equipment replacements might take months; major system upgrades could take a year or more.

This is why early audit completion matters: A Tier 1 building that completes its audit in late 2027 has virtually no time to implement improvements before the January 1, 2028 deadline. A building that completes its audit in 2025 has three years to plan improvements, secure financing, coordinate construction, and verify compliance.

Critical Dates You Must Track

Mark these dates on your calendar:

Spring 2025: Benchmarking submission deadline for 2024 data

Ongoing: Annual benchmarking data collection and submission (February through April each year)

2027: Latest recommended date for Tier 1 audit completion; critical deadline for Tier 1 improvement planning

January 1, 2028: Hard deadline for Tier 1 compliance

2029: Latest recommended date for Tier 2 audit completion

January 1, 2030: Hard deadline for Tier 2 compliance

These dates are established by regulation and are not flexible. Buildings that miss compliance deadlines face financial penalties and ongoing enforcement.

What Happens If I Miss a Deadline?

Oregon’s BPS includes financial penalties for non-compliance. Buildings that fail to achieve the energy performance standard by their deadline face fines. These penalties can be substantial—potentially thousands of dollars annually. Moreover, the penalties continue and may increase over time; missing the deadline is not a one-time cost but an ongoing financial burden.

Additionally, buildings out of compliance may face:

• Restrictions on property sales or refinancing
• Required disclosure of BPS non-compliance status to potential buyers or tenants
• Increased scrutiny from regulators
• Potential legal action by the state

There are no grandfather clauses or exemptions for buildings that miss deadlines. Once a deadline passes, compliance becomes significantly more difficult and expensive.

Planning Your Compliance Timeline

The most important action you can take now is to understand your building’s current status:

1. Verify benchmarking submission: Confirm that your building’s benchmarking data has been submitted for 2024
2. Determine your tier: Find out whether your building is Tier 1 or Tier 2
3. Assess current performance: Understand whether your building currently meets the energy performance standard
4. Plan your audit: If an audit is needed, begin planning now rather than waiting until 2027 or 2028

For Tier 1 buildings, the planning window is relatively short. 2025 is the time to make decisions and begin implementation.

For Tier 2 buildings, there’s somewhat more flexibility, but the same principle applies: early action provides better outcomes at lower cost.

Getting Your Timeline Right

Compliance deadlines are real, enforceable, and unyielding. However, they’re also manageable if you plan strategically and begin now. The buildings most likely to face compliance difficulties and penalties are those that procrastinate until late 2027 or 2029, only to discover they need more time than remains.

Oregon Building Compliance specializes in helping building owners understand their specific deadlines, develop compliant timelines, and avoid the costly mistakes that come from delayed action.

If you need clarity on your building’s specific deadlines, tier classification, or benchmarking status, contact Oregon Building Compliance today. We’ll review your situation and help you understand what action needs to happen when to ensure smooth, on-time compliance with Oregon’s BPS requirements.