Speaker 5: Agenda for the Report of the Energy and Environment Committee Council Bill 118630. To Build Energy Use Benchmarking and reporting directing the Office of Sustainability and Environment to make Building Energy Benchmarking Reports and where available and energy performance rating available to the public meeting sections to 2.9 20.0 60.125.170 of the Seattle Municipal Code and amending ordinance 124927, which adopted the 2016 budget, changing appropriations to various departments and building control levels and budget control levels and from various funds in the budget, all by a three quarter vote of the city council. The committee recommends the bill pass.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Sawant.
Speaker 3: Thank you, President Harrell. This is the first of the three pieces of legislation that have been developed by the Office of Sustainability and the Environment to require improved energy efficiency for existing large buildings. The city only requires energy benchmarking reports, which are basically an audit of how efficiently the buildings use energy in Seattle. This legislation makes that data, which until now hasn't been public to be public to be made publicly available. And when other cities have made this data public, we've seen that statistically it has had an impact in incentivizing building owners to make efficiency retrofit. So it makes sense. And as I've said before in our committee meetings, the efficient use of energy is a very good answer to the concerns that people might have about how protecting the environment might be at odds with also having good standards of living. And I think this is a good example because an energy efficient building uses less energy without loss of quality. We have and have had the technologies to live well without burning fossil fuels, without continuing to change the climate. And this legislation will go in the right direction by showing that, you know, if we have political will, we can actually make change. And I wanted to thank all the folks at the Office of Sustainability in Moman, many of whom who worked closely on it are here. Thank you so much. And also to environmental activists like the members of the Emerald Cities Coalition. And I also, as I did before, thank the having the labor representation also at Emerald Cities because we want to push forward the message that there is no dichotomy between these and living wage, unionized jobs and fighting for a clean environment . So thank you all. And the Energy and Environment Committee unanimously recommends putting this forward.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilmember Swann, are there any further comments?
Speaker 4: Councilmember O'Brien I'm kind of old school, so I still stand up when I talk here. I'll get over it, I'm sure. I just think it's great that on February 29th we're passing this legislation to take a major leap forward on energy efficiency in buildings. I stole that from someone else, but it really is a great opportunity. As others have mentioned, this is just a win win win across the board. It's great to have labor partners that are excited to be out there trained and ready to do this work in living wage jobs. It's great that we have the expertize here in our city to make these investments. We have building owners that some of them are leading this charge, and the groups as a whole have done great work with the city to come to a place where they were supportive in their comments at the committee. And I want to thank all the folks in the Office of Sustainability Environment for the ongoing work. It's amazing that we have over 99% of the buildings, over 20,000 square feet in the city are up to date on their reporting requirement, which is if we could get 99% compliance on anything, I think we're doing an amazing job . Finally, I want to thank my colleague, Councilmember Swan, for your leadership on this, too. It's a great, great step forward. I'm excited about it. And we're making progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050, and I know we have a lot more work to do.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilmember Brenner. Any further comments from my colleagues, Councilmember Swan?
Speaker 3: Just very quickly, I wanted to say I fully agree with Councilmember O'Brien that if we had 99% compliance, for example, on labor law, this would be a very good city. And so I really second him on that. And also likewise, I wanted to thank him for his work on this legislation.
Speaker 1: Excellent. Outstanding hearing. No further comments. Please call the rule on the passage of the bill.
Speaker 0: Berkshire. Burgess. Gonzalez. I herbold. Johnson. Suarez. O'Brien. So aren't.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 0: President Harrell. Nine in favor and unopposed.
Speaker 1: The bill passes and the chair will sign it again. Item number five has been held. Please read agenda item number six into the record.
AN ORDINANCE relating to building energy use benchmarking and reporting; directing the Office of Sustainability and Environment to make building energy benchmarking reports and, where available, an energy performance rating available to the public; amending Sections 22.920.060, 22.920.125, and 22.920.170 of the Seattle Municipal Code; and amending Ordinance 124927, which adopted the 2016 Budget, changing appropriations to various departments and budget control levels, and from various funds in the Budget; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.