In 2019, Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law a new Commercial Clean Buildings Performance Standard that requires most buildings larger than 50,000 square feet in the state to meet its outlined energy-efficiency mandates by 2026.
Because four years is a long way away, it might seem as if compliance needn’t be a worry right now. But, as noted by Perry England, vice president of building performance for mechanical contracting company MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions, the in-depth process of meeting new standards is something to take seriously, and with a sense of urgency.
“When you look at it, time is of the essence,” England said. “You have to allocate 12 to 16 months — 18 months preferred — in advance of your first compliance date, so that means by April 2025, buildings need to be running to the standard that they’re obligated to achieve. And then if you have to do major capital improvements, you need time to allocate the money and plan for those improvements so that you can be in compliance by your compliance date.”
To simplify the process, MacDonald-Miller recently teamed up with the City of Bellevue on a new program that not only assists building owners with getting into compliance if they aren’t already, but also receiving considerable incentive payments via the state (Washington has an Early Adopter Incentive program offering $75 million in incentives to eligible building owners) if retrofits need to be made.
It’s the first city-led effort in Washington to ensure the new clean buildings standards are met, and is in keeping with the tenets of the Sustainable Bellevue Plan. According to the City of Bellevue, whose large buildings generate about 26 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, there are about 573 private and public buildings eligible to participate in the program — 400 of which are required to comply. Resulting savings on energy use are anticipated to be nearly $2 million per year, according to a statement from the City.
Jennifer Ewing, the City’s environmental stewardship program manager, said that the program looks to do the bulk of the heavy lifting for building managers.
“To comply with the state law is a fairly complicated process, and also to apply for these early adopter incentives is a bit complicated … we’re really looking to not only help buildings improve their energy efficiency but to leverage funding that’s out there so (building owners can get compliant) in the most cost-effective manner,” Ewing told 425 Business.
Ewing added that the Bellevue- MacDonald Miller program offers free energy assessments and audits — the latter of which can range in price depending on building size — and complimentary engineering services. Building owners are currently being encouraged to register for the program by March 31 to begin the benchmarking process with MacDonald-Miller.
With interest in launching similar programs coming from other Eastside cities such as Kirkland and Redmond, England said he’d like to see more replications of what Bellevue is doing in the future. “The standard is new; it’s setting some pretty stringent expectations around energy efficiency in the built environment, and people need to be paying attention to it,” England said. “I think local governments can support their commercial building owners to do that.”
