Sustainable Buildings Initiative

Housing affordability and availability is a critical issue in our region.

As such, many social and financial challenges can often disincentive organizations from going beyond code to exemplary green building. HDC and our partners work to emphasize the lifecycle implications of reduced energy and water bills, and reduced exposure to toxins. Our members are on the cutting edge, directly confronting the tension between balancing upfront costs and creating durable homes as permanent, affordable assets to our communities.

HDC is committed to working in the intersection of housing affordability, sustainability, and race equity. Solutions that treat each issue individually are no longer enough, as these social issues are fundamentally interdependent. As stricter energy codes are mandated at the city, county, and state levels, we continue to ask who is benefitting from technical advances and growth opportunities, and work to ensure that historically under-resourced communities can and will prosper in a growing green economy.

A 2021 Executive Order directed the Seattle Office of Sustainability (OSE) to implement new carbon-based Building Performance Standards (BPS) for existing buildings over 20,000 sq ft. This order presents a great opportunity to improve the efficiency, comfort, and safety of our multi-family affordable housing, but it will also bring additional costs and challenges.

HDC recently launched a BPS Advisory Task Force to ensure that the city’s policy process is informed by recommendations that deliver options to lower upfront and operating costs for affordable housing while addressing the climate crisis and improving resilience as we create, operate, and maintain housing for low-income households.

We are also conducting research to better understand the impacts a new BPS policy may have on affordable housing. We’ve analyzed available benchmarking data and have identified a group of 15 buildings that represent broad affordable housing typologies. On-site audits of these buildings have begun and will help us determine the opportunities for, and the constraints to, electrification and decarbonization. Our BPS Advisory Task Force will incorporate the audit findings into our policy recommendations.

What is Building Performance Standards?

City of Seattle Resources

BPS and Affordable Housing

Healthy Flooring Alternatives Matrix

Resource
January 13, 2026

Sustainability

A selection of currently available flooring products, color-coded in alignment with Habitable, to indicate from green to red the toxicity spectrum of products in the market.