About Washington State Building Codes

Breaking Up with Fossil Fuels in Columbia River Communities

By Dan Serres, Conservation Director

Every Columbia River community is facing major impacts from the climate crisis, such as the heat, smoke, and displacement of catastrophic fires. Responding to the climate crisis, we have a chance to support tangible progress in reducing pollution that comes from our buildings and worsens the inequitable burdens of climate changes. Join us in supporting updates to the Washington commercial building codes that will require new commercial buildings to rely on electric heat pumps rather than fossil fuels. 

Act now

The Washington State Building Codes Council is considering changes to commercial building codes that require new commercial buildings to be built with clean electric heat pumps and heat pump water heaters instead of dangerous and polluting gas appliances. This would be a boost for Columbia River communities that are working to reduce the energy burdens and the inequitably distributed impacts of fossil fuel use.

Click here to send a comment in support of these changes to commercial building codes.

The reasons for supporting this update to commercial and large, multi-family dwellings are clear:

• Fossil fuel use contributes to air pollution, unequal energy burdens, and extreme weather events with disparate impacts across our communities. 
• Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and the resulting health effects of current fossil fuel use. 
• Better buildings are important. Commercial buildings are a huge consumer of energy, and transitioning to cleaner commercial buildings that rely less on fossil fuels will help to build a more equitable future along the Columbia River.
• For years, we have fought to limit the build-out of fracked gas proposals in our communities, like LNG terminals and methanol refineries. Updating building codes to require new commercial buildings to steer away from fracked gas will help broaden this effort, limiting future reliance on polluting and unhealthy fracked gas.

Here are resources to learn more:

• To read an OpEd in the Seattle Times in support of building code changes from an affordable housing advocate, check out Sharon Lee, executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, “Addressing the Housing and Climate Crises Together.” 
• Here is a great overview from Shift Zero about the effort for more equitable and sustainable commercial building codes.