Lawmakers debate embodied-carbon rules for large buildings in HB 2273

The Capital Budget Committee heard staff and sponsor briefings on House Bill 2273, which would direct the State Building Code Council to adopt embodied-carbon reduction standards for buildings and construction materials. Staff told members the standards would apply to new construction, additions and renovations of 100,000 square feet or larger (school district construction is excluded), require projects to meet a 30% reduction in embodied carbon from a static baseline for the 2030 code, establish a Commerce-hosted public database for design professionals to submit embodied-carbon data, and require random audits of 3% of projects with periodic reporting beginning Dec. 31, 2028. Fiscal impacts cited in the briefing included modest capital and operating costs for Commerce and Enterprise Services and an indeterminate nonzero cost for the University of Washington tied to capital-project impacts.