Description
Green building codes establish minimum requirements for all buildings that advance community health, resource efficiency, and resilience over the life cycle of a building. Having consistent code language, across multiple jurisdictions, helps reduce builder confusion. The Regional Code Collaboration will lead in the development of strong green building codes for new construction, altered existing buildings, demolished buildings, and building sites. Resulting codes may include but are not limited to renewable and geothermal energy, energy efficiency, water efficiency and reuse, building decarbonization, construction and demolition material management, material salvage & reuse, deconstruction, low embodied carbon and material toxicity, heat island mitigation, low impact development, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and sustainable transportation infrastructure. Codes should also reduce the potential disproportionate burden any increase in cost can have on development. King County will work with local jurisdictions to adopt codes locally and mobilize jurisdictions and industry partners to actively participate in the code amendment processes of the WA State Building Code Council (SBCC), and other local and national code processes. Additional staff resources are needed to adequately enforce building and energy codes to increase countywide code compliance with the latest green building strategies, technologies, and science.