The Sustainability Revolution Is Just Getting Started

Commercial properties don't have a monopoly on sustainability. There's a lot residential developers could do to make their projects greener. Come hear what at our Seattle Sustainability event tomorrow, the day before Earth Day, at the Grand Hyatt Seattle.

"Residential sustainability isn't even close to reaching any sort of plateau," Dwell Development principal Anthony Maschmedt, who will be a speaker, tells us. There's still much more residential developers can do. "Residential builders don't have any incentive to build green, because there's no requirement for them to do so. Builders can just build to the code minimum and reap huge profits because buyers are competing to purchase every home."

Anthony adds until there are clear beneficial incentives that encourage sustainability and clear code requirements, "we're only going to get limited participation from the built community." Dwell, however, isn't waiting to get its green mojo going: pictured is its 42-unit sustainable micro community, New Rainier Vista, in Columbia City, which it completed late last year.

On the commercial side, Seattle adopted legislation in March that establishes a foundation for a building market that values energy efficiency, and sets minimum expectations around efficient operations, Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment sustainable building program manager Sandra Mallory tells us. Sandra will be a speaker at our event.

Sandra explains the legislation updates Seattle’s existing building energy benchmarking law to include public transparency of energy performance, and phases in a periodic (every five years) tune-up requirement for commercial buildings 50k SF or larger, beginning in 2018.

Hear more from our speakers at our Seattle Sustainability event tomorrow at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. Sign up here!