Clean Buildings
Join us as we learn about what King County and Washington State are doing to help commercial buildings lower their environmental impact and save money. There are six episodes in this engaging and educational video series. Each episode examines a unique focus between commercial properties and sustainability. And different guests are introduced throughout the series that add a range of perspective to the story. Help us share this important message, and act alongside other community members so that King County and WA State can reduce more emissions from commercial properties.
Video 1: LEED Platinum
Henri, a student at UW and our guide in this series, meets Rep. Fitzgibbon while reading at the public library in Burien. Rep. Fitzgibbon informs Henri that commercial buildings account for 22% of emissions in King County. He then asks if Henri can go around and help us learn more about two new climate tools: C-PACER and the Clean Buildings Act Early Adopter Incentive.
Video 2: New & Old
Henri's first stop is the Civica Commons building in downtown Bellevue, where he connects with Anita Jeerage - the Sustainability Director at Unico Properties. Anita shows us building features and upgrades that save Unico Properties money while improving the efficient use of energy & water. She then brings Henri to the Skinner Building in Seattle and explains how older buildings can also be sustainable.
Video 3: C-PACER
After learning that new and old commercial buildings can save money by installing upgrades and becoming more sustainable, Henri then travels to Kent and meets up with Councilmember Kaur who describes how upgrades can be financed with C-PACER loans. These new loans have favorable terms, they are now available in King County, and they make it even easier for commercial properties to save money!
Video 4: Early Adopter Incentive
Not only can commercial building owners spread out the cost of sustainable upgrades with C-PACER loans, they can also take advantage of a generous incentive offered by the WA State Department of Commerce. Henri heads to the state capital and chats with Emily Salzberg, a Managing Director at the Department, to learn more about this cool incentive!
Video 5: Eligible Buildings
With C-PACER and the Early Adopter Incentive, King County and WA are working together to help commercial properties install sustainability upgrades that generate cost savings. Morgan Torres, a King County Climate Manager, lists in this video what buildings qualify for these financial tools, and then Henri encourages property owners to do their homework!
Video 6: Call to Action
King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay joins us in this fun series finale! Like our other guests, he urges commercial property owners to learn more about C-PACER loans and the WA State Early Adopter Incentive. But he also outlines calls to action for other members of the public - students, tenants, community organizations, etc. Answer the call!
It was so fun making this series, and we hope it contributes to a greater reduction of emissions from commercial buildings. But we want this series to serve as the preamble to a much larger campaign currently being developing called Keep PACE. If enough resources are made available to us, we will launch Keep PACE as a highly dynamic campaign that continues the visual story of decarbonizing commercial buildings while bringing more people and groups into the conversation, especially students. If you are interested in learning about Keep PACE, reach out to John at jekenn12@gmail.com