The City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment has just released a Resource Conservation Management Plan (PDF). The plan outlines the actions necessary to meet the City’s goal to achieve 20% energy savings by 2020 for existing buildings and provides a comprehensive strategy to guide energy efficiency and resource conservation investments across all City facilities.
As part of Seattle’s ambitious climate action plan goal to become carbon neutral by 2050, the City is doing its part to reduce the energy use of its facilities. The City owns more than 650 buildings, and with building energy making up about 21% of Seattle’s carbon footprint, these actions will make a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A 20% energy use reduction by 2020 (compared to 2008) would also result in utility cost savings of roughly $2.75 million per year after reaching the reduction goal.
Implementing the Plan calls for centralized resource use monitoring and continued work with capital departments to build on their existing efforts to improve the efficiency of City facilities. The first phase will focus on energy use, and over the next several years, the initiative will also review other aspects of resource use in City buildings, including water, waste, and stormwater.