What is sustainable building?

Buildings have a tremendous impact on environmental quality, resource use, and human health and productivity. Sustainable building meets current building needs and reduces impacts on future generations by integrating building materials and methods that promote environmental quality, economic vitality, and social benefit through the design, construction and operation of our built environment. Sustainable design encompasses the following broad topics:

• efficient management of energy and water resources
• management of material resources and waste
• restoration and protection of environmental quality
• enhancement and protection of health and indoor environmental quality
• reinforcement of natural systems
• analysis of the life cycle costs and benefits of materials and methods
• integration of the design decision-making process 

The benefits of sustainable building are many. 

What is the City doing to promote sustainable building?

The City encourages sustainable building both in City projects through the Sustainable Building Policy and facility design standards, and in the private sector by offering technical assistance, financial incentives, and resources. Different City departments also provide educational outreach, seminars  and workshops on a variety of sustainable building topics. The Business and Industry Resource Venture (BIRV) at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce has contracted with Seattle Public Utilities to provide educational outreach and technical assistance on job-site recycling, the use of recycled content material in building materials, water conservation and sustainable building.  The City’s Green Building website gives more information on the City’s activities.

To encourage sustainable building in the private sector, Seattle Public Utilities and City Light are offering a LEED™ Incentive Program on a pilot basis to assist a few projects to reach a level of sustainable building construction acknowledged by a national standard.  Seattle Public Utilities and the Department of Planning and Design offer resources through the Sustainable Building Library, and City Light’s Sustainable Resource Guide. The City’s sustainable building web site lists incentives and assistance available to citizens and businesses from various City departments. And the City has teamed up with Seattle Central Community College to offer the Sustainable Building Advisor Certification course.

Who is involved?

All City departments and offices and their contractors responsible for financing, planning, designing, developing, constructing and managing City-owned facilities and buildings with over 5,000 square feet of occupied space are affected by the City’s Sustainable Building Policy.

The Green Building program is housed with the Department of Planning and Development.

A Few Facts

• 90 percent of time is spent indoors, and one-third of buildings suffer from poor indoor air quality.
• The design, construction and maintenance of buildings have a tremendous impact on people and nature. Buildings consume 40 percent of the world’s total energy, 25 percent of wood harvest, and 16 percent of water consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development.
• The building industry is the nation’s largest manufacturing activity, representing more than 50 percent of the nation’s wealth and 13 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Energy and material consumption in building construction and operation can contribute significantly to global climate change.
• Or…looked at another way - only two percent of the 30-year costs of a building are in its initial construction.  Another six percent is expended on operations and maintenance and the remaining 92 percent is spent on the people who work there.

Sustainable building addresses the whole life cycle costs and benefits of a building, not just the initial first costs.

Green Building News

For all the latest on Green Building, visit the City Green Building site. They also list several other links to find sustainable building information.

Links - City of Seattle

Sustainable Building Policy (doc 24KB)

Green Building website- Dept. of Planning and Development

City of Seattle projects - list of the City's green buildings

Green Building Resources- including newsletters, case studies, reports and presentations

Sustainable Building Advisor Certificate Program - City Light

Green Building Team - Dept. of Planning and Development

Sustainable Communities - Dept. of Planning and Development

Sustainable Infrastructure Forum - 2004 regional forum

Links - Other

King County Sustainable Building Topics

Sustainable Buildings Industry Council

US Green Building Council

WSJ Real Estate Journal Article "The Public Sector Spurs 'Green' Building"  
July 16, 2003