Seattle Energy Code News Today

Miller Hull’s new health sciences building for the University of Washington features an opaque facade of corrugated metal.

Completed in 2020 in Seattle, United States. Images by Benjamin Benschneider, David Sundberg/Esto. 2+U creates a space for the community in the heart of downtown Seattle. Located next to the Seattle Art Museum, the project knits together the...

Building electrification and climate risk mitigation go mainstream. By RIC COCHRANE Cochrane Mandatory building energy performance is now Washington state law, and many building owners may be surprised by the stringency of compliance requirements. Perhaps most surprising to many in the real estate industry, however, is that Washington’s first-in-the-nation law is really not so innovative when compared with changes driven by the private sector. Specifically, global capital markets are now fa...

Mayor Durkan signs ban on gas heating in new apartments and buildings into law Gas space heating will soon be banned in new apartments in Seattle. (drpavloff, Flickr Creative Commons) Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed a recently-passed bill into law Monday, effectively banning natural gas space and water heating in new apartments, hotels, and commercial buildings. City councilmembers unanimously approved the measure last week, as part of a larger vote to bring the city into alignment with other...

Thursday, February 4, 2021 Fossil-based natural gas may be headed for a reckoning, at least in Washington State. Not long ago, natural gas was seen by many as the key “bridge fuel” necessary to transition our society away from oil and coal. Natural gas has its upsides; most significantly, it burns more efficiently and emits fewer pollutants than coal. 1 Yet burning natural gas still emits greenhouse gases (GHG), including methane, a potent climate pollutant. According to EPA, met...

Mayor proposes ban on gas heat for new Seattle buildings, apartments KOMO News Staff © Provided by KOMO-TV Seattle SEATTLE - Mayor Jenny Durkan is proposing strict limits on the use of natural gas or other fossil fuels for heating in new commercial buildings or apartment complexes in Seattle. The mayor sent the proposal to the Seattle City Council on Wednesday and urged them to give it their approval. The measure would update the citys energy code to encourage clean electrical...

The citys poised to join a climate-conscious club. By Christy Carley 12/14/2020 at 8:30am Seattle will still hear that tick-tick-swoosh sound.  Seattle was doing a pretty good job of reducing its greenhouse gas output...until it wasn’t. From 2008 to 2016, the city’s core greenhouse emissions (those from the waste, transportation, and building sectors) decreased by about 5 percent. But over the next three years those core emissions increased by a little over 1 p...