Local Government Initiatives for Green Buildings in Washington: Policies, Codes, and Incentives

Local governments across Washington state are using various methods to advance green building design and practices. While Part 1 of this blog series looked at common green building program components, Part 2 will cover local government examples of green building policies, codes, and incentives.

Local Policies

Green building policies provide a set of long-term goals, guidelines, or principles to promote sustainable building practices that can be adopted by government agencies, organizations, or institutions. Such policies can be mandatory or voluntary depending on how they are implemented.

Local policies reinforce the objectives of Washington State’s Clean Buildings Performance Standard and help to ensure compliance and adoption of green building practices. Below are some examples of local policies and programs implemented across the state.

Vancouver

The City of Vancouver’s Green Building Policy includes new building and development code standards, incentives, and programs to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It also aims to encourage building material reuse, conserve water, improve resiliency to extreme weather events, promote renewable energy, and protect wildlife.

Development of the policy included a review of the existing city and state codes and an assessment of the impact of green building policies on emissions, construction costs, and jobs through modeling and data analysis. A technical advisory group (which included representatives from the construction industry, green building experts, environmental advodcates, housing advocates, and city staff) provided input, and the city also sought feedback from community members through roundtables, surveys, and workshops.

Seattle

Seattle’s Building Emission Performance Standard (BEPS) policy was developed in 2022 and 2023 to advance the creation of healthy efficient buildings and support the city’s 2018 Climate Action Strategy, which calls for a 40% reduction in GHG emissions in Seattle’s building sector by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

BEPS also supports Executive Order 2021-09: Driving Accelerated Climate Action, aimed at creating net zero emission buildings, healthy and equitable transportation, and sustaining a clean energy workforce to advance climate justice. BEPS complements the state’s clean buildings performance standard but aims for even higher emissions reductions.

Thurston County

Thurston County’s’ Climate Mitigation Plan, Buildings and Energy Sector includes GHG reduction targets and performance indicators that focus on improving energy efficiency to reduce energy consumption in residential and commercial buildings. Like Thurston, other jurisdictions include green building measures as part of broader GHG reduction strategies.

Local Regulations

Statewide legislation helps ensure that sustainable practices are consistent across new developments. Local policies and regulations are critical in ensuring the implementation of green building practices as well as providing locally available resources and tools.

The King County Green Building Ordinance 19402 was adopted in March 2022 to advance green building and sustainable development practices through the planning, design, construction, renovation, maintenance, and operations of all capital projects owned or financed by the county. The ordinance mandates the use of sustainable building certifications, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), to reduce the carbon footprint, energy use, and water consumption of buildings.

The ordinance also requires new construction projects achieve platinum certification and major renovation projects achieve LEED gold certification. Capital projects that are not eligible or have limited ability to achieve LEED certification can use the county’s Sustainable Infrastructure Scorecard to target other levels.

Permit Incentives

Green building permits are a common method of incentivizing development and are often tied to local development regulations. They usually include expedited permitting, fee reductions or waivers, density bonuses, height bonuses, and technical assistance. Below are some examples of permit incentives.

Bellingham

Bellingham offers a solar panel permit exemption program that removes the building permit and engineering for most residential solar installations. Non-residential buildings can have the cost of solar panels excluded when setting permit fees. All program participants can get an expediated two-week permit review and save more in fees.

Issaquah

Issaquah encourages green building development by expediting the building permit review if a project achieves Built Green 5 star (for residential projects) or LEED gold certification (for commercial projects).

Redmond

Redmond’s Green Building Incentive Program encourages sustainable building practices in new construction and major renovations by providing incentives to developers and builders who incorporate green building standards in their projects.

Seattle

Seattle's Green Building Permit Incentives program encourages the development of all-electric buildings with water conservation features. The program offers four different types of incentives: Priority Green Expedited, Green Building Standard, Living Building Pilot Program, and the 2030 Challenge. Eligible projects that meet the requirements of the specific green building inventive and certification program can gain additional height, floor area, or an expeditated building permit.

Tacoma

Tacoma's Sustainable Development/ Green Building Permit Program is intended for work orders, site development permits, and various building permits. Applicants must achieve the required certification level of an approved green building program. Applicants must upload a "completed preliminary certification checklist for the applicable certification program as part of the permitting package."

Conclusion

Given the impact the buildings sector has on GHG emissions, local governments play an essential role in setting and administering localized standards, offering permit incentives, and providing essential tools and resources that complement statewide legislation. These local efforts can help Washington State realize its climate action goals, create a more resilient building and energy sector, and build healthier communities.

Below are additional resources from MRSC:

• Climate Change — This landing page provides links to all of MRSC's resources related to climate change and its impacts on Washington State communities.
• Climate Action Peer Network — This peer network meets quarterly (via Zoom) and provides an opportunity for local government staff working on climate-related issues to share best practices and learn about new approaches. Each meeting includes presentations from climate organizations, state agencies, and/or local jurisdictions on a topic of interest, as well as time for attendees to provide brief project updates and ask questions. To be notified about upcoming meetings, contact Lisa Pool.