King County’s government capital portfolio is valued at approximately $5 billion, with over 450 active projects, an amount expected to grow over the next five years. Meanwhile, building and facility energy use is one of the region’s largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By prioritizing green building and sustainable development practices in its operations, maintenance and construction, King County can significantly reduce its environmental impact while ensuring a clean, healthy, and resilient public infrastructure network for everyone. Through its capital investments and facility upgrades, King County can lead by example in advancing development practices, inspiring others to do the same, and benefitting communities regionally and beyond. However, more work is needed to reduce fossil fuel use in County buildings.
What's at stake
The breadth of King County’s operations results in the County being a significant consumer of energy and other utility resources. Services such as treating wastewater, operating a complex transit system, transporting and disposing of solid waste, and providing buildings and facilities to support a wide variety of public services requires utility resources to heat, cool, illuminate, power, and clean hundreds of facilities. While essential for supporting staff and operations to provide County services, the consumption of all resources has an environmental impact, and the County spends over $30 million per year to purchase energy resources from local utilities.
A better outcome
Efforts to change and reduce the energy and other resources used by King County government’s buildings and facilities will have multiple benefits. The County seeks to lead by example for how the community can reduce energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, become a supplier of its own energy, and catalyze economic growth and jobs in the clean energy sector.
What we've done to get here
- Updated the Green Building Ordinance (GBO) in 2022 with new and improved requirements and clarifications to align with the 2020 SCAP and 2016 Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Strategic Plan.
- Launched the first interactive e-Learning course on the GBO, the 2020 SCAP, and the King County Sustainable Infrastructure Scorecard (KCSIS) with a focus on implementing ESJ actions in all King County-owned capital projects.
- Continued investments to convert fossil fueled heating systems to GHG-neutral electric heat pump technology are reducing or eliminating the consumption of GHG-producing equipment in facilities across County agencies.
- Expanded solar power installations to take advantage of state grants and federal Inflation Reduction Act incentive dollars to result in King County offsetting utility purchases of electricity while reducing operating costs.