Launch Energy-Efficiency Program for Large Buildings in City
The City of Bellevue and HVAC specialist MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions have created a program to help owners of large buildings in Bellevue make the buildings more energy efficient to comply with new state standards.
The state’s new Clean Buildings Performance Standard requires that most buildings larger than 50,000 square feet meet energy efficiency standards by 2026 to 2028, with dates based on building size. The City and MacDonald-Miller have introduced the Bellevue Clean Buildings Incentive Program for eligible building owners to receive incentive payments from a state fund to make the retrofits.
Washington’s Early Adopter Incentive Program offers $75 million in incentives to eligible building owners to assess their energy use and create and implement plans to reduce energy consumption, and encourage early compliance with the state law.
Building owners and property managers can attend a webinar on Jan. 12 to learn more, and should register for the City program by March 31 to begin the benchmarking process with MacDonald-Miller. State funds will be appropriated as eligible companies apply.
Bellevue’s program is the first city-led effort to help building owners meet the new standard, according to a news release from the partners.
“Having an energy efficient building is not only good for the environment, it will also save building owners and managers energy costs,” Mayor Lynne Robinson said in the release.
About 573 private and public buildings in Bellevue are eligible for the program. Of those, 400 must comply with the new state energy standards. Energy savings are anticipated to be about $2 million annually. The others, mainly multifamily buildings, are not required under the law, but still have the option of participating in the early adopter incentive program, the release said.
Larger buildings generate about 25 percent of Bellevue’s greenhouse emissions, Jennifer Ewing, Bellevue’s environmental stewardship program manager, said in the release. She added that the initiative supports goals in the City’s Sustainable Bellevue Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be an innovative business center in the Northwest.
Perry England, vice president of building performance for MacDonald-Miller, said carbon emissions from buildings’ energy consumption are increasing at a rate five times greater than overall emissions in Washington state.
“MacDonald-Miller is excited to be the city’s selected consultant, and we are ready to make Bellevue the most compliant city in the state,” he said.
