Seattle

In January 2010, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed Council Bill 116731, an ordinance that requires benchmarking and disclosure for nonresidential and multifamily buildings 20,000 square feet (sf) or greater. The ordinance expands on the Green Building Capital Initiative, a comprehensive strategy proposed in 2009 by former Mayor Greg Nickels to reduce the climate impact from Seattle's homes and buildings. The design of the benchmarking requirement is based on proposals from the City of Seattle's Green Building Task Force. The 50-member group of public- and private-sector stakeholders met in 2008 and 2009 to generate policy recommendations for achieving energy efficiency and consumption reduction targets laid out in the Green Building Capital Initiative. Their findings were issued in April 2009 and incorporated into legislation that was ultimately signed by Mayor Mike McGinn on Feb. 1, 2010. The Seattle policy compliments a transactional commercial rating program in Washington State. Seattle Council Bill 117575 was passed as an amendment to the original bill on September 17th, 2012, raising the square footage threshold to 20,000 sf and restructuring enforcement of the requirement. Owners of nonresidential and multifamily buildings must benchmark energy performance with Energy Star Portfolio Manager and annually report their results to the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment, and disclose upon request to transactional parties. Building owners must disclose a Statement of Energy Performance from their EPA ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account to current tenants as well as prospective buyers, tenants, and lenders. Seattle Energy Benchmarking Helpline - (EnergyBenchmarking@seattle.gov; 206-727-8484 www.seattle.gov/energybenchmarking)

In March 2016, the Seattle City Council passed Council Bill 118630 amending the Building Energy Benchmarking and Reporting Program to make benchmarking reports available to the public. The amendment also orders utilties to upload aggregated utility consumption data into an owner's Energy Star Portfolio Manager account provided written authorization from a representative of the owner.

In March 2016, Seattle City Council passed Council Bill 118631. The ordinance requires owners of nonresidential buildings greater than or equal to 50,000 square feet to complete a tune-up of buildings once every five years.

A building tune-up is defined as:

1. An inspection of building energy and water systems conducted by a qualified tune-up specialist and resulting in a report of findings and recommendations for improving building energy operations; and

2. Actions taken to optimize energy and water performance by implementing all low-cost adjustments and minor repairs to existing buildings’ energy and water systems as determined by the Office of Sustainability & Environment Director.