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Recommendation GB 2 — Lead by example in government.

State and local governments continue to lead by example to promote green building. All public buildings meet or exceed the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Standard, the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol, or the Evergreen Standard for Affordable Housing (per Chapter 39.35D RCW).

• Continue to work with agencies affected by the state’s green building mandate to ensure they have tools to meet green building requirements.
• Encourage local governments to adopt both green building and low-impact development (LID) policies.
• Participate in established processes for continuously improving green building standards as new technologies and issues emerge.
• Strive for all publicly owned and operated buildings to meet or exceed Architecture 2030 energy efficiency goals. Recent legislation requires energy audits on all public buildings to determine what improvements are needed to increase the building’s efficiency.

Washington was the first state to require green building practices for all publicly funded buildings. In the next phase of the Beyond Waste plan, we must take this leadership to the next level: procurement.

• Focus on revising state government procurement processes to ensure the purchase of environmentally preferable products and green building materials.

Milestone GB A: Washington continues to be a leader in green building.

Milestone GB B: All new state-funded buildings continue to meet or exceed green building requirements.

Milestone GB C: Government continues to identify and remove regulatory barriers to green building.

Milestone GB H: At least 50 percent of all local governments in Washington have adopted green building policies and/or incentives.

Milestone GB J: Authorities adopt policies that require low-impact development (LID) strategies to be included in building design and maintenance.

Milestone GB K: Energy use in public buildings meets or exceeds Architecture 2030 goals.

Links and Resources

• Ecology Green Building Assistance
• Government Building Case Studies
• Environmental Preferable Purchasing Building Materials
• Green Building Regulations

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