BILL REQ. #: S-0895.1
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/26/11. Referred to Committee on Environment, Water & Energy.
AN ACT Relating to maximizing the use of our state's natural resources; amending RCW 39.35.030, 39.35.040, 39.35.050, and 19.27.031; adding a new section to chapter 19.27 RCW; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 The legislature finds that research has
shown the importance of reducing environmental impacts through building
design. The primary focus on building designs has been an attempt to
reduce energy requirements, primarily heating and cooling, over the
course of a building's lifetime. However, what has been overlooked are
opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other
environmental impacts at earlier stages in the building and
construction design process. The selection of building materials and
products, such as using wood and wood products in the design stage,
provides substantial opportunities to reduce lifetime greenhouse gas
emissions. A key component of life-cycle cost analysis is the energy
expended in the extraction, transportation, manufacturing, and
production of the building materials being considered in the
construction of buildings.
Sec. 2 RCW 39.35.030 and 2001 c 214 s 16 are each amended to read
as follows:
For the purposes of this chapter the following words and phrases
shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires
otherwise:
(1) "Public agency" means every state office, officer, board,
commission, committee, bureau, department, and all political
subdivisions of the state.
(2) "Department" means the state department of general
administration.
(3) "Major facility" means any publicly owned or leased building
having twenty-five thousand square feet or more of usable floor space.
(4) "Initial cost" means the moneys required for the capital
construction or renovation of a major facility.
(5) "Renovation" means additions, alterations, or repairs within
any twelve-month period which exceed fifty percent of the value of a
major facility and which will affect any energy system.
(6) "Economic life" means the projected or anticipated useful life
of a major facility as expressed by a term of years.
(7) "Energy management system" means a program, energy efficiency
equipment, technology, device, or other measure including, but not
limited to, a management, educational, or promotional program, smart
appliance, meter reading system that provides energy information
capability, computer software or hardware, communications equipment or
hardware, thermostat or other control equipment, together with related
administrative or operational programs, that allows identification and
management of opportunities for improvement in the efficiency of energy
use, including but not limited to a measure that allows:
(a) Energy consumers to obtain information about their energy usage
and the cost of energy in connection with their usage;
(b) Interactive communication between energy consumers and their
energy suppliers;
(c) Energy consumers to respond to energy price signals and to
manage their purchase and use of energy; or
(d) For other kinds of dynamic, demand-side energy management.
(8) "Life-cycle cost" means the initial cost and cost of operation
of a major facility over its economic life. This shall be calculated
as the initial cost plus the operation, maintenance, and energy costs
over its economic life, reflecting anticipated increases in these costs
discounted to present value at the current rate for borrowing public
funds, as determined by the office of financial management. The energy
cost projections used shall be those provided by the department. The
department shall update these projections at least every two years.
(9) "Life-cycle cost analysis" includes, but is not limited to, the
following elements:
(a) The coordination and positioning of a major facility on its
physical site;
(b) The amount of embodied energy used in the building materials of
a major facility;
(c) The amount and type of fenestration employed in a major
facility;
(((c))) (d) The amount of insulation incorporated into the design
of a major facility;
(((d))) (e) The variable occupancy and operating conditions of a
major facility; and
(((e))) (f) An energy-consumption analysis of a major facility.
(10) "Energy systems" means all utilities, including, but not
limited to, heating, air-conditioning, ventilating, lighting, and the
supplying of domestic hot water.
(11) "Energy-consumption analysis" means the evaluation of all
energy systems and components by demand and type of energy including
the internal energy load imposed on a major facility by its occupants,
equipment, and components, and the external energy load imposed on a
major facility by the climatic conditions of its location. An energy-consumption analysis of the operation of energy systems of a major
facility shall include, but not be limited to, the following elements:
(a) The comparison of three or more system alternatives, at least
one of which shall include renewable energy systems, and one of which
shall comply at a minimum with the sustainable design guidelines of the
United States green building council leadership in energy and
environmental design silver standard or similar design standard as may
be adopted by rule by the department;
(b) The simulation of each system over the entire range of
operation of such facility for a year's operating period; and
(c) The evaluation of the energy consumption of component equipment
in each system considering the operation of such components at other
than full or rated outputs.
The energy-consumption analysis shall be prepared by a professional
engineer or licensed architect who may use computers or such other
methods as are capable of producing predictable results.
(12) "Renewable energy systems" means methods of facility design
and construction and types of equipment for the utilization of
renewable energy sources including, but not limited to, hydroelectric
power, active or passive solar space heating or cooling, domestic solar
water heating, windmills, waste heat, biomass and/or refuse-derived
fuels, photovoltaic devices, and geothermal energy.
(13) "Cogeneration" means the sequential generation of two or more
forms of energy from a common fuel or energy source. Where these forms
are electricity and thermal energy, then the operating and efficiency
standards established by 18 C.F.R. Sec. 292.205 and the definitions
established by 18 C.F.R. 292.202 (c) through (m) as of July 28, 1991,
shall apply.
(14) "Selected buildings" means educational, office, residential
care, and correctional facilities that are designed to comply with the
design standards analyzed and recommended by the department.
(15) "Design standards" means the heating, air-conditioning,
ventilating, and renewable resource systems identified, analyzed, and
recommended by the department as providing an efficient energy system
or systems based on the economic life of the selected buildings.
(16) "Embodied energy" means the total amount of fossil fuel energy
consumed to extract raw materials and to manufacture, assemble,
transport, and install the materials in a building. "Embodied energy"
includes the initial collection of the resource, refinement, transport,
product manufacture, packaging, installation, maintenance,
refurbishment, and eventual demolition and disposal or recycling.
Sec. 3 RCW 39.35.040 and 1994 c 242 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) Whenever a public agency determines that any major facility is
to be constructed or renovated, such agency shall cause to be included
in the design phase of such construction or renovation a provision that
requires a life-cycle cost analysis ((conforming with)) that includes
the calculation of the amount of embodied energy used in all building
materials and that conforms to the guidelines developed in RCW
39.35.050 to be prepared for such facility. Such analysis shall be
approved by the agency prior to the commencement of actual construction
or renovation. A public agency may accept the facility design if the
agency is satisfied that the life-cycle cost analysis provides for:
(a) An efficient energy system or systems based on the economic life of
the major facility; and (b) due consideration of low embodied energy
building materials.
(2) Nothing in this section prohibits the construction or
renovation of major facilities which utilize renewable energy systems.
Sec. 4 RCW 39.35.050 and 2001 c 214 s 17 are each amended to read
as follows:
The department, in consultation with affected public agencies,
shall develop and issue guidelines for administering this chapter. The
purpose of the guidelines is to define a procedure and method for
performance of life-cycle cost analysis to promote the selection of
low-life-cycle cost alternatives. At a minimum, the guidelines must
contain provisions that:
(1) Address energy considerations during the planning phase of the
project;
(2) Identify energy components and system alternatives including
energy management systems, renewable energy systems, and cogeneration
applications prior to commencing the energy consumption analysis;
(3) Establish a method for calculating the embodied energy used in
building materials for construction of a major facility;
(4) Identify simplified methods to assure the lowest life-cycle
cost alternatives for selected buildings with between twenty-five
thousand and one hundred thousand square feet of usable floor area;
(((4))) (5) Identify simplified methods to ensure low embodied
energy building materials are used in the building design;
(6) Establish times during the design process for preparation,
review, and approval or disapproval of the life-cycle cost analysis;
(((5))) (7) Specify the assumptions to be used for escalation and
inflation rates, equipment service lives, economic building lives, and
maintenance costs;
(((6))) (8) Determine life-cycle cost analysis format and submittal
requirements to meet the provisions of chapter 201, Laws of 1991;
(((7))) (9) Provide for review and approval of life-cycle cost
analysis.
Sec. 5 RCW 19.27.031 and 2003 c 291 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, there shall be in
effect in all counties and cities the state building code which shall
consist of the following codes which are hereby adopted by reference:
(1)(a) The International Building Code, published by the
International Code Council(([,])), Inc.;
(b) The International Residential Code, published by the
International Code Council, Inc.;
(c) The International Green Construction Code, published by the
International Code Council, Inc.;
(2) The International Mechanical Code, published by the
International Code Council(([,])), Inc., except that the standards for
liquified petroleum gas installations shall be NFPA 58 (Storage and
Handling of Liquified Petroleum Gases) and ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54
(National Fuel Gas Code);
(3) The International Fire Code, published by the International
Code Council(([,])), Inc., including those standards of the National
Fire Protection Association specifically referenced in the
International Fire Code: PROVIDED, That, notwithstanding any wording
in this code, participants in religious ceremonies shall not be
precluded from carrying hand-held candles;
(4) Except as provided in RCW 19.27.170, the Uniform Plumbing Code
and Uniform Plumbing Code Standards, published by the International
Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials: PROVIDED, That any
provisions of such code affecting sewers or fuel gas piping are not
adopted; and
(5) The rules adopted by the council establishing standards for
making buildings and facilities accessible to and usable by ((the
physically disabled)) individuals with disabilities or elderly persons
as provided in RCW 70.92.100 through 70.92.160.
In case of conflict among the codes enumerated in subsections (1),
(2), (3), and (4) of this section, the first named code shall govern
over those following.
The codes enumerated in this section shall be adopted by the
council as provided in RCW 19.27.074. The council shall solicit input
from first responders to ensure that firefighter safety issues are
addressed during the code adoption process.
The council may issue opinions relating to the codes at the request
of a local official charged with the duty to enforce the enumerated
codes.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 6 A new section is added to chapter 19.27 RCW
to read as follows:
Pursuant to RCW 39.35.050 and the procedures established in RCW
19.27.074 the state building code council must review the state
building code and adopt changes as necessary to promote the greater use
of wood and wood products.