Washington Gives Local Governments, Schools, and Other Public Building Owners Needed Decarbonization Tools 

Gov. Inslee signs House Bill No. 1777, May 04, 2023. Relating to authorizing the use of performance-based contracting for energy services and equipment. Primary Sponsor: Rep. Doglio

OLYMPIA, WA — On May 4th, 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed House Bill 1777 into law, authorizing the use of energy as a service (EaaS) as a performance-based contracting mechanism for public building owners. The legislation allows public building owners to fully leverage private sources of capital and maximize newly available federal funds to meet the state’s decarbonization standards for the built environment.

“This gives the state new ways to pay for and apply new retrofitting standards to dozens of government and publicly owned buildings across the state,” said Governor Inslee. “Taking care of a backlog of these building issues will help us reduce how much energy these buildings consume and lower the overall carbon footprint of these buildings, making them healthier and more comfortable places to work in.”

With historic pressures on capital budgets to meet decarbonization standards and a window of opportunity to maximize federal funds, the bill’s signing will help to drive public projects in Washington through public-private capital partnerships. EaaS contracts are now authorized for public energy projects, providing a path forward for public entities to implement energy projects without upfront capital outlay, without impact to debt capacity, without long-term operational & maintenance risk, and with terms that would fund larger more complex infrastructure projects.

“Washington is creating an achievable path to decarbonizing its public buildings,” said Justin Surratt, Viridis Initiative Managing Director. “We celebrate the state’s leadership in providing an innovative approach to achieving sustainability ambitions, allowing public entities access to long-term off-balance sheet funding for infrastructure projects.”