Seattle BEPS and tune-ups, stacked on top of the state standard.
Seattle runs its own performance schedule and a tune-up cycle, and neither one satisfies the Washington state standard. Two programmes, two sets of dates.
Dates and thresholds change. We confirm the current requirement for your specific building before anyone acts on it.
What the standard actually asks of a building.
Seattle stacks. The city programme and the Washington state Clean Buildings standard are separate obligations and neither satisfies the other, so a covered Seattle building has two compliance tracks running in parallel with different dates.
The Building Tune-Ups requirement is the live one for mid-size buildings, and it has nine alternative compliance paths. Two of those can be answered from public data in minutes: an ENERGY STAR certification at the right level, or a weather-normalised energy use intensity below a threshold in two of the three prior years. We check those before scoping an actual tune-up, because the check is free and the tune-up is not.
Verification independence matters here too. Whoever filed the benchmarking cannot verify it, which changes how the engagement has to be structured from the start.
How we get you to the standard
Establish the position, choose the route, then document the work.
Two programmes, a new portal, and a tune-up date already in the year.
Buildings from 50,000 to 69,999 sq ft have a tune-up obligation due October 1, 2026, and the alternative compliance screening should happen well before that rather than after a scope is commissioned.
Fines for the 2025 data year were waived during the portal transition, and we will not sell a filing on penalty avoidance that does not exist. The obligation still stands, which is a different argument.
What a Seattle letter usually means.
Seattle stacks with the state, so first establish which programme sent it.
Send us the letterSend us the letter itself, not a summary. We read it for the six things that decide the response: who sent it, which building and identifier it names, what period it covers, what it says you failed to do, the cure date, and whether it is a first notice or an escalation. We never quote a running penalty total, and we cure first, then talk to the regulator.
Why boards bring us in
Performance standards are where the money is, and where bad advice is most expensive.
Questions about Seattle BEPS and Building Tune-Ups
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The pages that usually matter next for a Seattle building.
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