Green Building

Green Buildings Update

In 2005, the Washington State Legislature passed the High Performance green building Green Buildings bill, ESSB 5509, the first of its kind in the nation. This was one of four Priorities for a Healthy Washington that year and one of two that passed. This law requires construction projects funded in the capital budget to be designed, built and certified to “green building” standards. Green buildings help to protect our environment by saving energy and water, and use recycled and less-toxic materials. The intent is to reap these environmental benefits for our state, as well as use the state’s multi-billion dollar construction budget to increase the market for green building suppliers and focus the state’s resources on green building innovation.

Quality control is maintained by requiring buildings affected by this law to achieve at least a Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) ranking. LEED is a nationally accepted rating system for green buildings, which scores design, construction, and operation of buildings.

Where we are now
Though some state projects incorporated many of the ideas inherent in the Green Buildings legislation prior to its passage, the earliest post passage projects began design in July 2005. Thus, the first official “Green Buildings” projects will not be complete until around September 2008. According to the state’s General Administration Agency’s most recent report to the Legislature on the implementation of Green Building legislation, 56 out of 60 eligible major facility projects are on track to achieve LEED Silver status. Encouragingly, despite some of the difficulties inherent in using newer building concepts, 10 of the buildings planned since the passage of the Green Buildings law are seeking the higher environmental standard Gold status, rather than the Silver ranking required by law. Buildings as varied as community college science buildings and corrections facilities are all on track to achieve LEED Gold or Silver status.

Two of the major challenges that the state’s General Administration (GA) agency faces in implementing the Green Buildings law (as identified by its own November 2006 Report to the Legislature) are a lack of funding for LEED-related costs and difficulty implementing renewable energy systems, as they are not always cost effective in the short-term. The GA has recommendations in place to address these problems and will continue to monitor the progress of the program.

Progress being made

Despite these challenges, on the whole, the implementation is going well. The GA has developed tools to track the state projects affected by the legislation. Additionally, they have trained over 300 people on Green Buildings and LEED related issues, including many state project managers.

Evaluating the success of Green Buildings will be an ongoing process. As the first generation of buildings constructed after the law’s implementation are completed, we will have a better sense of what is going well and what is still to be done. As Washington continues to push ahead in the fight against climate change, WEC will be there to help identify, encourage, and implement new ideas, as well as ensure the previously passed reforms are carried out to their fullest potential.