Northwest Cities Set the Green Trend
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| Thomas J. Condon, Jr., Querrey & Harrow |
Although already green in landscape, three major cities in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Eugene, and Portland) have recently taken steps to improve the sustainability of residential and commercial construction and properties.
Seattle, the most populous city in the Northwest, is living up to its reputation as the Emerald City by taking green strides to reduce its carbon footprint, stimulate sustainable development, and combat climate change.
On Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Seattle announced the Green Building Capital Initiative. The Initiative supplements the City’s previous Climate Private Protection Initiative of 2005 that was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 7% from 1990 levels by 2012.
The goal of the Initiative is to reduce energy consumption and climate pollution in both existing and new residential homes and commercial buildings. The Initiative works through an audit that identifies areas where efficiency can be improved and environmentally-friendly upgrades can be made, and then providing incentives for the upgrades.
The focus of the Initiative is on existing single family residences and small multi-family residential units consisting of one to four units, and commercial and larger multi-family buildings. For the former, the Initiative plans to conduct the largest home energy audit pilot program in the country by performing 5,000 residential audits within 18 months, at a cost of only $95.00 to owners, compared to the normal $600.00 fee.
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| Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels |
Each audit employs state of the art diagnostic tests to analyze a home’s heating and cooling systems and will provide an “Energy Performance Score.” Homeowners can use this score to evaluate the efficiency of their home, understand their energy consumption and carbon impact, and use a high score to increase the market value of their home.
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Adam Busch, Co-Publisher & Co-Owner, Green Space Today: “How can the Green Building Capital Initiative increase the market value of residential property in Seattle?” Mayor Nickels: "The housing market has spoken: people want energy efficient homes. We make to make it simple for homeowners to understand how their homes use power, and how to improve performance. Investments in energy efficiency will help the planet, and make your home more valuable. That's a win-win." |
To help homeowners make the upgrades identified by the audit, the Initiative combines Federal stimulus money, philanthropic donations, and private investments to create a $20-40 million fund that provides low interest loans to homeowners for upgrades to lighting, furnaces, water heaters, and windows to maximize their home’s efficiency.
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| Seattle City Hall, a LEED Gold certified building, Courtesy of Erik Stuhaug |
For existing commercial and larger multi-family structures, Seattle’s Initiative requires mandatory energy performance disclosures that are based on the size of the building. Disclosures are required for properties greater than 50,000 square feet by 2010. Smaller buildings of 10,000 square feet or larger must report by 2012. All of the information will be reported through the EPA’s secure server, which the City can access to monitor progress under the Initiative.
Beyond the efficiency incentives inherent in the upgrades, Seattle has also developed an expedited permit program for new construction referred to as “Green Q.” The program is scheduled to begin by December 2009 and guarantees priority permitting for projects committed to achieving the highest levels of energy efficiency.
New construction is also required to improve energy efficiency by 30 percent. Finally, the Initiative is estimated to create approximately 230 new “green” jobs, will generate large savings from reduced energy consumption to support economic development, and will improve training for auditors and other technicians.
Like Seattle, Eugene, Oregon has been busy creating its own framework to encourage efficient building practices, conserve natural resources, and protect human health. The Eugene Green Building Program is focused on making green building practices routine by offering technical assistance, various incentives, education, and training.
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Portland Mayor Sam Adams, Courtesy of E Schwartz |
Unlike Seattle, in order to take advantage of the various incentives in Eugene, a project must either be registered with the U.S. Green Building Council as seeking LEED certification or must meet other standards approved by the City.
If a project is qualified, it is entitled to an expedited permit review of roughly twenty days for a commercial project and ten to seventeen days for a new residence, depending on the complexity of the project and other land use requirements.
Also, eligible projects benefit from two free consultations with the permit review staff to first discuss green opportunities prior to the project’s plan submittal, and second, following permit approval to assist in the transition to the contractor. These projects are given priority status for inspections. Furthermore, Eugene is currently developing a more extensive permit incentive program that will be announced by the end of this year.
The City of Portland, Oregon has also incorporated sustainable development into its codes through an extensive Green Building policy that is scheduled to be implemented in phases by July 1, 2010 at the earliest.
The objective of the policy is to encourage energy efficiency, provide significant energy cost savings to residents and businesses, improve indoor environmental quality, and reduce waste and water use from building construction. It aims to reduce carbon emissions from buildings by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 through financial incentives, and is expected to add 100 new jobs every year.
The policy has separate plans for new and existing residential and commercial buildings. New commercial buildings in excess of 20,000 square feet will be subject to a “feebate” that imposes a fee on old, conventional construction practices, waives fees for moderate green improvements, and rewards exceptional green building projects.
These categories will be determined by an independent third party in accordance with LEED and Earth Advantage Standards to ensure credibility and verification of efficiency improvements. If a project attains LEED Gold or Platinum status or a similar approved standard (the City expects few projects will), it will receive a one time reward check in an amount based on its environmental performance and the building’s square footage, up to roughly $7.00 per square foot. If the project is awarded the LEED Silver certification or similar status, traditional fees will be waived.
Lastly, if the project only meets the minimum Oregon Code requirements, it must pay a one time fee to offset future operation emissions up to $3.46 per square foot for new commercial construction. The City anticipates the fees it collects will be enough to sustain the green building rewards, technical assistance, and educational programs.
Portland plans to set a performance target for new single family residences that aims for a certain percentage of sustainably built homes over time. Currently, the proposal is for 20 percent of new homes to be certified under Earth Advantage or LEED by 2009, with an increasing percentage over time.
If this target is met, Portland will not impose any new regulations. However, if the target is not met, the City plans to impose an incentive program similar to that for new commercial buildings with a comparable “feebate” that will reward a LEED Platinum residence up to $10,000 and penalize a conventional home up to $1.03 per square foot.
Under Portland’s policy, large existing commercial and multi-family buildings are required to report certain information such as water use, indoor environmental quality, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, and stormwater management, and will receive a score to determine if they meet minimum standards.
Like Seattle’s Initiative, Portland also plans to phase in disclosure requirements for smaller buildings over time. For existing residential buildings, Portland will not impose any new requirements, but is developing a large “Clean Energy Investment Fund” to finance green residential upgrades, like Seattle’s residential loan program.
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In July 2009, Mayor Sam Adams and the City Council approved Clean Energy Works Portland, an innovative, first-of-its-kind, pilot program aimed to supply clean energy retrofits on 500 Portland-based residences. Adam Busch: “Why is Clean Energy Works: Portland a practical initiative for struggling middle-class homeowners?” Mayor Adams: “Sustainability is a necessity, not a luxury. As such, steps toward sustainability have to be accessible to all, not just to the wealthiest citizens or the biggest companies. Clean Energy Works Portland is an incredibly innovative model that tackles the number one challenge facing the average resident or small business -- financing. By working with utilities and socially responsible capital managers -- in our case, Shore Bank -- the City of Portland is taking the financing hurdle head on and developing a way for any homeowner to be able to afford weatherization and energy efficiency improvements. This program is in the pilot stages now, but I'm confident it will be a success and we can move to the next level, providing service for renewable energy upgrades for residences, and growing the program to include commercial and industrial properties, as well. I have set an aggressive goal for carbon emissions reductions for Portland -- to reduce our emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. To hit that goal, we're going to need to find any and all ways to reduce energy use and minimize emissions. Energy efficiency is a key piece of that game plan." |
In addition to the incentives discussed above, Portland plans to expand technical assistance to builders and owners by providing the advice of green building experts, offering training on LEED and Earth Advantage certification, and conducting workshops to educate the public on performance reporting.
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| A Portland Streetcar |
The fact that all three of these Northwest cities have taken it upon themselves make local practices “greener” demonstrates a growing trend to mandate increased energy efficiency, decreased pollution, and stronger environmental values in our communities.
These new policies and initiatives will benefit the region by adding new jobs, spurring economic development, reducing harmful pollutants, and improving the efficiency of buildings over time. Though some may argue larger fees, increased governmental oversight, and complicated regulations are unwarranted impositions, the benefits of a greener environment and potential of reduced operating costs and increased property value counter the potential inconveniences of these new programs.
Seattle, Eugene, and Portland are setting the green trend in the Pacific Northwest for other municipalities to follow.
Thomas J. Condon, Jr., Querrey & Harrow can be reached via e-mail at tcondon@querrey.com.
Brian Chenoweth, Chenoweth Law Group, PC can be reached via e-mail at brianc@northwestlaw.com.
