Green Building

Why Build Green?

We all depend on buildings to live, learn, and work in. As our state's population grows, we will need more homes, schools, and offices. This ongoing opportunity for Washington's building industry provides living-wage jobs in our communities and plays an important role in a healthy economy.

But buildings can have negative impacts on our health, our wallets, and the environment. For example:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that most adults now spend an average of 90 percent of their time indoors, which means that ensuring quality indoor environments is critical for our health.
• Residential and commercial buildings used nearly two-thirds of all electricity consumed in the U.S. in 2003.
• Construction and demolition waste made up 34 percent of the solid waste generated in Washington in 2002.

Green buildings will be a big part of creating sustainable communities and moving Washington toward a sustainable future. Other elements of sustainable communities include planning for dense, mixed use neighborhoods; transit, bike, and pedestrian connectivity; and Low-Impact Development of infrastructure, such as streets and storm water systems.

Green Building: A State and Local Government Priority

The State of Washington and many local governments have made commitments to use green building standards. The High-Performance Public Buildings bill, signed into law by Governor Gregoire on April 8, 2005, requires all new state-funded facilities over 5,000 square feet to meet green building criteria. Major office and higher education facility projects will be required to achieve LEED™ Silver certification; new K-12 schools will be required to meet the Washington Sustainable Schools Protocol (WSSP), or LEED certification.

The Department of General Administration's Sustainable Design and Construction program will oversee construction of new state facilities built to LEED standards.

Strategic Collaboration Initiative - Department of Ecology is partnering with Cascadia Region Green Building Council and the City of Portland's Office of Sustainable Development to increase collaboration and communication around our mutual goal of a sustainable built environment.  A full day planning workshop on April 25 kicked off this effort and was attended by over 100 green building and sustainable development professionals from around the Northwest.  This event was followed by the two-day Living Future Conference at Seattle Center April 26 and 27.

Because green building can significantly reduce negative impacts on the environment, the Department of Ecology has made promoting green building a priority.  Green Building is a key component of the Beyond Waste Plan, the department's 30 year goal to eliminate waste before it is created. Ecology's headquarters building in Lacey is certified LEED-Silver under the Existing Buildings 1.0 pilot program.