City of Seattle Building Emissions Performance Standard (BEPS) Policy
The City of Seattle is working to implement a Green House Gas emissions-based building performance standard for the reduction of Green House Gas emissions from buildings >20,000 sq. ft. within the city limits.
- Here’s a link to the City’s page regarding this policy
- This is a link to the City’s fact sheet explaining why they feel this will be beneficial
- This
PowerPoint presentation from February 1, 2024
gives an overview of the
City’s program. Part 2 starting with
slide #12 covers the requirements and timeframes
This reporting requires a lot of work as well as the assistance of a qualified professional to complete it. Because of this I encourage building owners to start the work at least 1.5 years in advance of the deadline their building needs to meet.
Commercial buildings >50,000 sq ft can get an jump start on this program by participating in the Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator which is a no-cost technical support and training program for building owners and managers to meet the State of WA Clean Buildings requirements and to reduce emissions per the City’s BEPS policy.
This is the City’s anticipated policy timeline (updated 1/5/2024):
- 2024 to 2025 - Rulemaking and further public engagement is expected to start in mid-2024. More details about the process and timing will be announced in OSE newsletters.
- 2025 to 2026 - Continued program development.
- 2027 to 2030 - Initial benchmarking verification and greenhouse gas requirements start.
- 2031 to 2035 - First GHGI targets must be met, with performance targets becoming gradually stronger over time through 2050.