Seattle forms 2030 district

A ZGF-designed remodel means Joseph Vance Building is meeting the 2030 Challenge.

A new Seattle group operating incognito is fast becoming the most popular avenue for commercial building owners and managers in the city's downtown core to swap information and share resources to reach the goals of the 2030 Challenge.

The Seattle 2030 District, a public-private effort, could ease the work of companies trying to meet the 2030 Challenge. The ad-hoc group currently includes five major property owners and managers in the downtown core, two city utilities, including the city-owned electric utility, engineers and many organizations and design firms.

The group is the brainchild of Brian Geller, sustainability specialist in the Seattle office of Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Architects (ZGF). He says he based the idea on a similar project in Chicago. Seattle's tight-knit community of property owners and managers, many of whom are already undertaking "forward-thinking green programs," are motivated to share what is usually considered proprietary data, in part because of a recently passed energy-use disclosure ordinance.

But while the law requires energy-use data be provided to all potential buyers and tenants of a space or building, it doesn't require an analysis of those numbers. This is an opportunity to qualify building data, says Brandon Morgan, real estate development manager for Vulcan.

It also means owners and managers have a place to turn when trying to create benchmarks, as well as support when it comes to crafting energy-reduction plans, Morgan says. 

Building owners and managers are likely not the only ones to benefit from the creation of the Seattle 2030 District. Designers who are trying to better understand operational concerns, as well as city representatives who say good data could justify financial incentives they are discussing, also stand to benefit.

But The Seattle 2030 District will likely not stop at just data gathering. Along with the creation of best practices for reducing the use of resources, Geller says he hopes to see neighboring buildings share physical resources as well. He points to the remodel of Seattle’s King Street Station, for which ZGF is the lead designer. The city's central train station receives much more rainwater than it can use, so the firm is hoping to collect and share rainwater with neighboring buildings. "That experience opened our eyes to the fact that buildings are not islands," Geller says.

Currently the group is meeting every two weeks and is working on a formal agreement that would officially create the Seattle 2030 District. Members hope to sign it by the end of the year, Geller says.