Seattle awarded $17.2M to help implement the city’s building emission ordinance

(The Center Square) – The City of Seattle has been awarded $17.2 million in federal grant dollars to aid in costs associated with the implementation of its recent building emission ordinance.

The grant money comes from the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Assistance for the Adoption of the Latest and Zero Building Energy Codes” grant, which is funded by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The awarded funds will be spent from 2025 through 2033.

Seattle’s Building Emissions Performance Standard Policy was signed into law late last year.

The policy establishes emissions targets for existing nonresidential and multifamily buildings in excess of 20,000 square feet. It is projected to cut annual building greenhouse gas emissions by 325,000 metric tons by 2050. That is the equivalent of taking 72,322 gasoline-powered cars off the roads for a year.

Approximately 1,650 nonresidential buildings and about 1,885 multifamily buildings with 20 units or more are covered under the policy. About 600 large buildings on college and hospital campuses are also covered.

The Center Square previously reported that seven of the city’s buildings are over 20,000 square feet, which would in turn mean spending approximately $35 million by 2042 in order to meet its policy standards.

The new grant represents about half of the $35 million necessary to reduce greenhouse emissions from the city-owned buildings. However, the city said the funds will be used for the implementation of the Building Emissions Performance Standard Policy ordinance.

More specifically, the distributed funds will go:

Helping create a building emissions performance standard; Aiding building owners to comply with the standard;Working with building owners in navigating financing, incentives, tax credits and grants that could support their compliance with the building emissions performance standard;Supporting facility managers and service providers become qualified building emissions performance standard service providers; andCreating a new Seattle building emissions performance standard workforce liaison.

“This grant will help us provide resources to building owners to help them modernize their buildings, especially multifamily housing and community buildings in Seattle neighborhoods that are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis through extreme heat, pollution, and poor indoor air-quality,” Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment Director Jessyn Farrell said in a news release.

Seattle’s 2024 budget includes $5.8 million in appropriations from the payroll expense tax to continue the policy’s implementation.

Project costs through 2029 are re-estimated to still total $5.8 million with an ongoing annual cost of $386,000 per year.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act program is designed to address the climate crisis and create cleaner buildings.

The Washington State Department of Commerce was awarded $7.7 million from the grant as well to help develop performance targets for its building performance standard and provide technical assistance for building performance standard implementation across the state.