What future do we want to leave the next generation? As government employees, our job is to reduce countywide sources of greenhouse gas emissions drastically in the next few decades; as stewards of our natural resources, responsible for working toward fostering livable communities that are equitably accessible to all, it is also our passion.

Here in Washington State, King County has sought to put these goals into action and make them achievable, working over the last few years to build lasting capacity in capital, operations, permitting and finance programs in county divisions to screen for potential Zero Energy and Living Building Challenge (LBC) projects. This strategy has brought forward opportunities that serve an array of functions: solid waste transfer stations, public buildings with 24/7 operations, county funded affordable housing, transit infrastructure, parks and wastewater maintenance buildings, and fleet and workshop facilities.

King County also has ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to meet, along with goals to dramatically scale-up county efforts to reduce use of water, energy, and material resources in county construction and operation. It’s therefore necessary to work across diverse agencies within the County’s massive 12,000-person workforce, collaborating and partnering with the private sector and neighboring jurisdictions to put projects on a successful path and make screening of capital projects for these certifications “standard work” for program managers.

With these parameters in mind, King County embarked on putting goals into practice, screening its capital portfolio for potential candidates that could certify with the LBC and aiming for 10 LBC (or Zero Energy) projects by 2020.

With a suite of projects representing multiple service areas and project types, we are now showcasing how municipal governments can meet performance-based certification standards like the LBC for public infrastructure. From the registration of a 100-square-foot transit comfort station prototype to an 80,000-square-foot industrial recycling and solid waste transfer station, King County is committed to confronting climate change and we’re proud to have something to show for it.

Affordable Housing: the Riverton Cascade Project

Given the current housing crisis in the Seattle metro area, affordable housing developers lack the resources needed to plan for energy efficient buildings or even environmentally friendly building materials. In the affordable housing world, public funding sources expect the lowest per unit cost possible making opportunities for deeper green affordable housing unlikely. In other words, the current funding models pit affordability and sustainability against each other.

Riverton Cascade, a project being developed by Homestead Community Land Trust, is proposing to develop 18 affordable and energy-efficient homes on land purchased from the Riverton Park United Methodist Church. Riverton Cascade is an alternative model and not typical to most affordable housing being built in the greater Seattle area. The project will offer homeownership opportunities to people who make between 60-80% of the area’s median income. Community land trust homes are affordable to the first-time buyer and are kept affordable to all subsequent low- to moderate-income buyers through partnerships with homeowners.

Riverton Cascade project renderings. Photo courtesy of Valerie Thiel, Sage Architectural Alliance.

Riverton Cascade intends to incorporate high-performance building envelopes into the home design that will feature high levels of insulation and low air leakage. These features will be combined with the use of photovoltaic solar panels and net zero energy strategies. This project is considered to have a predecessor in the Living Petal-certified zHome. Like zHome, the project is designed to meet Built Green Emerald Star certification as well as the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Zero Energy Certification. This project will be made possible through the collaborative work of the Homestead Community Land Trust and King County, providing financial support, green building technical assistance and community outreach support. The opportunity to make the Riverton Cascade project a high performance green building project would be the model that is truly “proof of concept” and can be replicated in the future.

North Utility Maintenance Shop Project

One of King County’s top priorities is to safeguard and enhance natural resources and the environment by minimizing our operational environmental footprint. To make this vision a reality, King County’s Parks Division completed an energy efficiency retrofit project in 2017, enhanced by the installation of a 49 kilowatt photovoltaic system on its North Utility Maintenance crew headquarters at Marymoor Park in Redmond. This work was possible through the collaborative efforts of the Park Division’s Operations staff, King County’s Energy Manager, Capital Project Manager and management.

Our Energy Manager saw an opportunity to improve the efficiency of the shop complex’s two buildings, which were built in the early 2000s and not designed for zero energy, but had good solar orientation. However, the Parks Division is a property tax levy-funded agency directly accountable to King County taxpayers. On-site maintenance staff were relatively unfamiliar with green building concepts, so some education and groundwork were necessary to build momentum and understanding of the project. As a retrofit project, the energy improvements had to be carefully evaluated to reduce energy use enough to be offset by the solar power that could be generated on the available roof space.

“Implementing the energy upgrades in increments made the building performance improvements more noticeable and rewarding – [we saw] the improved efficiency with each new upgrade,” said Jennifer Kim, Project Manager.

Ultimately, the project integrated a cost-effective package of solar panels and cutting-edge energy efficient lighting and mechanical equipment in order to see zero energy results. The building’s lights were upgraded to extremely high efficiency LEDs, and a premium-efficiency heat pump system replaced the heaters and air conditioners in the buildings.

When asked about the best part of this project, the King County Energy Manager replied: “We were able to improve the building conditions and [in the process], comfort for the people who work there. Focusing on reducing energy use as much as possible before installing the solar system enabled us to provide higher quality lighting and better building comfort, while significantly reducing energy use.”

In the last year, the solar panels on the building provided 25% more energy than the building consumed. The project has submitted its Zero Energy certification, and will be the first in King County to be certified.

City of Shoreline

King County is motivated to develop innovative ways to collaborate with partnering jurisdictions and cities to truly build a community of practice for high performance green building in local government. As the County continues to develop projects aimed at achieving the Living Building Challenge, we have been inspired by the work of our partners like the City of Shoreline.

Shoreline, using King County’s toolkit for developing green buildings, began creating its very own by modifying and adapting its toolkit for smaller jurisdictions. The city, specifically Miranda Redinger of Shoreline’s Planning and Community Development Department, began to develop a framework for how other cities could encourage and incentivize green buildings in their own jurisdictions. Miranda collaborates closely with King County, and even co-chairs King County GreenTools’ sub-committee for High Performance Green Buildings.

“The beautiful thing about government work is that if we develop a great package that shows what green buildings are capable, how they can enhance a community and what it takes to reach the different certifications, other cities can easily adopt it. If more cities adopt it, then we get this virtuous cycle where developers know the cities are interested in green buildings and want to be involved in those projects and local suppliers begin creating more certified materials. That will really create more synergy around green buildings, and get more built in our region and hopefully nationwide.” – Miranda Redinger, City of Shoreline

A Community of Practice: King County

Each year, King County, in partnership with ILFI, creates educational opportunities through community roundtables, trainings and other events. Our goal is to share these successes with other counties and cities, foster a collaborative environment, and build a community of practice;  with a commitment to confront climate change and inspiring projects brought forward from clear, shared goals – we’re proud to have something to show for it.

Join us at King County’s Living Future unConference session to learn more: Building a Community of Practice, the King County Living Building Challenge Accelerator.  

Written By

Nori Catabay and Patti Southard

Nori Catabay works for the GreenTools program in King County Washington and leads the internal King County Green Building Team. She provides green building technical assistance and training to County capital projects and manages the King County Sustainable Infrastructure Scorecard. She led the County’s Green Building Ordinance renewal adding the Living Building Challenge to King County Code as an alternative to the Scorecard or LEED Platinum requirement, and a LBC demonstration ordinance for voluntary LBC efforts in the unincorporated areas. Nori has 18 years of experience in government implementing public policies on a local and state level. Patti Southard is the program manager for Green Tools green building program in King County Washington. At King County Southard runs the Sustainable Cities Program which focuses on coordinating all of King County's cities on built environment and climate related policies. In addition Southard provides technical assistance for the County's LEED, Living Building Challenge and Built Green initiatives. Southard has led the GreenTools program as a two time Harvard Bright Idea Award winner and recently received Governor Jay Inslee's Solar Community Award for the Regional Code Collaboration which she co-chairs with the Kathleen Petrie, City of Seattle. Southard was raised on her family farm and has focused her sustainable development career on the juxtaposition between rural and urban communities.