Housing
Sustainable
Number of Passive House Certified Residential Units in WA
Source: PHIUS
% of Fully Electrified Washington Homes
Source: 2020 US Energy Information Administration
Key Points
• Sustainability means low energy use, full electrification, and Passive House-level performance.
• Embodied carbon, the emissions locked in during construction, counts too, though WA lacks a statewide database to track it yet.
• Housing that's affordable in construction but costly to heat and cool isn't truly affordable.
• Goal: fully electrified housing, energy use decreasing, and Passive House-level performance.
What is it?
Sustainability means housing that performs well over its lifetime: low energy use, electrified rather than dependent on fossil fuels, and built to standards like Passive House that treat efficiency as a design outcome rather than an afterthought. This is about the building itself, how it’s powered, how much energy it actually consumes, and how durable that performance is over decades of use. It also includes embodied carbon, the emissions baked into the materials and construction process before a building is ever occupied. Washington State does not yet have a statewide database to track embodied carbon, so it isn’t part of the measurable metrics here, but it remains part of what sustainability actually means, and that gap is expected to close as data infrastructure catches up.
Why Sustainability Matters
Housing built without sustainability in mind locks in decades of unnecessary energy cost and emissions, often borne disproportionately by the lowest income residents who can least absorb high utility bills. A unit that’s affordable on paper but expensive to heat and cool isn’t truly affordable. Embodied carbon matters for the same reason on a different timeline. The emissions from concrete, steel, and other materials are locked in the moment a building is constructed, regardless of how efficiently it operates afterward, so a truly sustainable housing system has to account for both. Sustainable housing also tends to be healthier and more comfortable to live in, with better air quality and more stable indoor temperatures, connecting this priority directly to dignity and stability as well, not just climate goals.
Where We Want to Be
The goal is for new residential construction in WA to be fully electrified as the default, not the exception, with legacy gas dependent stock transitioning over time. Average energy use intensity for residential buildings should trend steadily downward, reflecting both stronger code requirements and broader adoption of high performance building methods. Passive House certified units should grow from a small niche into a mainstream construction option, particularly within publicly funded and affordable housing, where the long term operating savings matter most to the residents who benefit from them. On embodied carbon, the near term goal is building the data infrastructure to track it statewide, with the longer term goal of low carbon materials and construction methods becoming standard practice rather than a premium choice. The vision is a WA housing stock that costs less to live in over time and costs less to build in the first place, measured in carbon as much as dollars.