City Creates Incentive Program To Stimulate Carbon-Neutral Building Development
The city of Seattle recently launched the 2030 Challenge Pilot Program that will offer incentives to owners of existing buildings that take steps to make their structures more carbon neutral.
Under the program, building owners are given two additional floors and a 25% floor area ratio bonus in exchange for projects meeting the program’s performance goals. Those goals call for a 70% reduction in energy use, a 50% improvement in water management and a 50% decrease in transportation emissions from established baselines.
Up to 20 projects in the city’s urban centers will be able to take advantage of this program. The city’s urban centers include downtown, First Hill/Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, Uptown, University District and Northgate.
The Seattle City Council unanimously passed the legislation June 25.
“Seattle has always invented the future, and the creation of this new pilot program further establishes us as a leader combating the negative impacts of climate change,” Seattle City Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
