The CU system office and CU Boulder have won a $220,000 award after participating in the inaugural Scalable Tech Track Adopters cohort, an initiative of Wells Fargo’s Innovation Incubator in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). 

CU Boulder will use the award to retrofit the windows of the Environmental Design (ENVD) building using INOVUES’ innovative energy-saving window technology. The upgrade is projected to reduce ENVD’s energy use by at least 15%, generating a cost savings of $46,900 per year.

Over the course of the five-month program, CU system Assistant Vice President for Budget, Planning and Capital Kori Donaldson and CU Boulder Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Resilience Chris Ewing worked closely with experts at NREL to explore the challenges and solutions for implementing scalable clean energy technologies. They embarked on a listening tour with a dozen individuals from within CU to gather data and input before delivering a final presentation. Seven judges from various industries made the final decisions about which projects would move forward.

CU Boulder will integrate INOVUES’ advanced retrofit window solution into the ENVD building—a move that promises to reduce energy consumption and contribute to the university's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The INOVUES product, a dynamic, cost-effective window retrofit system, will enhance the building’s energy efficiency by reducing heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.

“We’re proud to be leading the way in implementing real-world solutions that directly impact our campus and the broader community,” President Todd Saliman said. “This project highlights CU’s continued dedication to sustainability, and we’re excited by its potential for use in other CU buildings and a cleaner, more sustainable future.”

With INOVUES’ patented retrofit technology, CU Boulder will be able to upgrade its existing windows without the need for full replacements in a building constructed in 1947—minimizing waste and disruption while still achieving substantial improvements in energy performance. The result will be a more comfortable, efficient learning environment for students and faculty.

“Our goal is to lead by example and ensure that CU Boulder remains at the forefront of sustainability and energy efficiency,” said CU Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz. “This is the kind of innovative, scalable solution that can help us accelerate our clean energy transition and make a real impact on campus decarbonization by reducing how much energy we use to begin with. It’s also a great example of how we can work with NREL and other partners to make great strides on the sustainability goals we share.”

CU Boulder was the only university represented in the cohort. Four other award recipients will do projects such as retrofitting HVAC systems, improving air quality and optimizing data center cooling.

“Alongside the new relationships formed with NREL, the program itself is an award,” said Sarah Derdowski, Innovation Incubator program manager at NREL. “We’re already seeing renewed efforts to change the culture at all of these organizations.”

Following the installation of the retrofit windows, CU’s facilities teams will monitor the energy efficiency of the building through thermal imaging and energy-use data to determine whether this could be a viable long-term solution for other buildings on campus.

“This is an exciting opportunity for CU Boulder to further its commitment to sustainability, and we are thrilled to have been part of this cohort,” said Ewing. “By leveraging the INOVUES retrofit windows, we will be able to make an immediate small stride toward our carbon neutrality goals, while also demonstrating the viability of scalable clean energy technologies that can be adopted across other institutions and buildings. As a proud ENVD alumnus who spent so many hours in that building, it is exciting to work on a project that will not only reduce our energy usage but also increase user comfort for our students, faculty, staff and visitors.”

ENVD window retrofitting is expected to begin over the summer and will be complete before fall 2025.

“This partnership is just the beginning of many more sustainable projects at the University of Colorado that we hope can benefit all four campuses,” said Donaldson. “Through collaboration and innovation, we are working to achieve our long-term carbon neutrality goals while making a tangible difference in the fight against climate change.”