Washington State Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS)

Who's covered

Washington's Clean Buildings Performance Standard (CBPS), under RCW 19.27A.200, splits covered buildings into two tiers with materially different obligations -- this isn't a minor distinction, and treating Tier 2 as "a smaller version of Tier 1" will lead you to over- or under-comply.

Tier 1 covers a building where the combined nonresidential, hotel, motel, and dormitory floor area exceeds 50,000 sq ft (excluding parking garage area) -- an exclusive floor, so a building at exactly 50,000 sq ft is not Tier 1. Multifamily buildings can never be Tier 1, no matter how large.

Tier 2 covers two distinct situations: (a) a building where the combined multifamily, nonresidential, hotel, motel, and dormitory floor area exceeds 20,000 sq ft but does not exceed 50,000 sq ft, or (b) any multifamily building at or above 50,000 sq ft, with no upper bound. Put plainly: a multifamily building is always Tier 2, at any size above the 20,000 sq ft floor -- there's no size at which a multifamily building "graduates" to Tier 1's obligations. Nonresidential buildings, by contrast, move from Tier 2 into Tier 1 once they cross the 50,000 sq ft line.

At the exact 50,000 sq ft boundary, a nonresidential building lands in Tier 2, not Tier 1 -- Tier 1's floor is exclusive ("exceeds" 50,000), while Tier 2's ceiling is inclusive (up to and including 50,000). A building at exactly 50,001 sq ft is the reverse: Tier 1 only, since it now clears Tier 1's exclusive floor and exceeds Tier 2's inclusive ceiling.

Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 -- don't conflate the obligations

This is the part worth internalizing before anything else: Tier 1 is the full performance standard. Tier 2 is not.

	Tier 1	Tier 2
Who	Nonresidential/hotel/motel/dorm > 50,000 sq ft (never multifamily)	20,000-50,000 sq ft mixed population, or any multifamily ≥ 50,000 sq ft
Core requirement	ASHRAE 100-based EUI performance target	Benchmarking only -- no EUI performance target
Also required	Energy management plan (EMP) + O&M program	Energy management plan (EMP) + O&M reporting
Deadline	Phased by size, 2026-2028 (see below)	July 1, 2027
Penalty cap	Up to $5,000 + $1.50/sq ft per cycle	$0.30/sq ft
Early-adopter incentive	$0.85/sq ft	$0.30/sq ft

The practical takeaway: if your building is Tier 2, you don't owe an actual energy-use-intensity improvement number the way Tier 1 buildings do -- you owe accurate benchmarking data plus a real energy management plan and O&M reporting. A Tier 2 building that benchmarks honestly and keeps its EMP and O&M documentation current is compliant, even if its ENERGY STAR score is mediocre. Don't let a consultant sell a Tier 2 owner an EUI-improvement retrofit plan framed as a compliance requirement -- it may be good practice, but it isn't what the statute requires at that tier.

A genuinely confusing coincidence worth flagging directly: Tier 2's penalty cap ($0.30/sq ft) and Tier 2's early-adopter incentive ($0.30/sq ft) are the same number, but they mean opposite things -- one is what you could owe for non-compliance, the other is what you could earn for complying ahead of schedule. Don't let the matching figure make you think they're the same line item.

Key dates

Tier 1 deadlines phase in strictly by size, and are staggered enough that two buildings just above and below a size line can be a full year apart:

Building size (nonresidential/hotel/motel/dorm)	Tier 1 compliance deadline
Over 220,000 sq ft	June 1, 2026
90,000 - 220,000 sq ft	June 1, 2027
50,000 - 90,000 sq ft	June 1, 2028

Tier 1 compliance then recurs every 5 years after a building's initial deadline -- this isn't a one-time performance check.

Tier 2 has a single, unified deadline regardless of size within the tier: July 1, 2027. There is no size-based staggering the way Tier 1 has -- a 21,000 sq ft mixed-use building and a 49,000 sq ft one face the same date.

Compliance documentation has to be prepared with the involvement of a qualified person (an energy auditor with the credentials the Department of Commerce specifies) -- this isn't a self-certification the way plain benchmarking is in most other programs in this registry.

Penalties

Tier 1 penalties can reach $5,000 plus $1.50 per square foot of gross floor area per compliance cycle -- a figure that scales meaningfully with building size, unlike a flat fine. An owner who receives a Notice of Violation can respond with an approved noncompliance mitigation plan, which can reduce that exposure by roughly 70%. This isn't automatic -- it requires the plan to actually be submitted and approved, not just promised.

Tier 2 penalties are capped at $0.30 per square foot -- a materially lower ceiling than Tier 1's, consistent with Tier 2's lighter benchmarking-and-plan obligation rather than a full performance target.

Both tiers carry an early-adopter incentive for buildings that come into compliance ahead of their deadline -- $0.85 per square foot for Tier 1, $0.30 per square foot for Tier 2. Note that the Tier 2 incentive figure happens to match the Tier 2 penalty cap exactly; they are not the same thing, just a coincidence of the numbers chosen.

Step-by-step: how to comply

1. Determine your building's tier under RCW 19.27A.200's exact wording -- Tier 1 only for nonresidential/hotel/motel/dorm space exceeding 50,000 sq ft (never multifamily), Tier 2 for everything else above 20,000 sq ft. We check this against your building's use mix and square footage, including flagging the exact-50,000-sq-ft boundary case where the exclusive Tier 1 floor and inclusive Tier 2 ceiling matter.
2. Benchmark the building in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager with a "Washington Clean Buildings Standard" Standard ID. We handle this setup and the annual data entry once your utility feed is live -- this step is common to both tiers.
3. For Tier 1 buildings, work with a qualified energy professional to develop an ASHRAE 100-based energy management plan and O&M program aimed at your building's EUI target, ahead of your size-based phased deadline (2026, 2027, or 2028). We track your building's tier and phased deadline and flag it well in advance -- but the ASHRAE 100 target work itself needs a qualified professional's involvement, the same as any licensed technical sign-off elsewhere in this registry.
4. For Tier 2 buildings, prepare an energy management plan and O&M documentation alongside your benchmarking data -- there's no EUI target to hit, so don't over-scope this into a Tier 1-style retrofit plan. We track your July 1, 2027 deadline and the required documentation checklist.
5. Submit through the WA Clean Buildings Portal by your building's deadline. If a Tier 1 target genuinely can't be met, evaluate an approved noncompliance mitigation plan (up to ~70% penalty reduction) rather than simply missing the deadline outright -- and if you're ahead of schedule either way, apply for the early-adopter incentive before your deadline passes, since it's tied to acting early, not to eventual compliance.

What we handle

The single highest-value thing we do for Washington Clean Buildings owners is keep Tier 1 and Tier 2 obligations from getting conflated -- a Tier 2 owner sold a Tier 1-style EUI retrofit plan is paying for work the statute doesn't require at that tier. Run the compliance checker below to confirm your building's tier under the exact RCW 19.27A.200 test and its phased deadline, then join the waitlist. What stays yours: the qualified energy professional's involvement in a Tier 1 energy management plan, and any capital decisions behind closing an EUI gap.

Frequently asked questions

Can a multifamily building ever be Tier 1?

No. RCW 19.27A.200's Tier 1 definition covers only nonresidential, hotel, motel, and dormitory floor area -- multifamily residential space is excluded from that definition entirely, and shows up only in Tier 2 (either as part of the 20,000-50,000 sq ft mixed population, or on its own at 50,000 sq ft and up with no upper bound).

My commercial building is exactly 50,000 sq ft. Am I Tier 1 or Tier 2?

Tier 2. Tier 1's floor is exclusive ("exceeds" 50,000 sq ft), so exactly 50,000 sq ft doesn't clear it. Tier 2's ceiling is inclusive (up to and including 50,000 sq ft), so exactly 50,000 sq ft falls inside it. At 50,001 sq ft, the answer flips to Tier 1 only.

Does Tier 2 require meeting an energy-use-intensity target like Tier 1?

No. Tier 2 requires benchmarking plus an energy management plan and O&M reporting -- it does not carry Tier 1's ASHRAE 100 EUI performance-target obligation. That's also reflected in Tier 2's much lower penalty cap ($0.30/sq ft vs. Tier 1's up to $5,000 + $1.50/sq ft).

Why do two buildings of similar size have different Tier 1 deadlines?

Tier 1 deadlines are staggered strictly by size within the tier: buildings over 220,000 sq ft were due first (June 1, 2026), then 90,000-220,000 sq ft (June 1, 2027), then 50,000-90,000 sq ft (June 1, 2028). A building just above one of those lines can be a full year ahead of a building just below it.

Is the early-adopter incentive the same amount for both tiers?

No -- $0.85 per square foot for Tier 1, $0.30 per square foot for Tier 2. It happens that Tier 2's incentive figure ($0.30/sq ft) is numerically identical to Tier 2's penalty cap ($0.30/sq ft), which is a coincidence worth being careful about, not a sign they're related concepts.

Can I reduce my Tier 1 penalty if I genuinely can't hit the EUI target on time?

Yes -- responding to a Notice of Violation with an approved noncompliance mitigation plan can reduce the penalty by roughly 70%. That requires actually submitting and getting the plan approved; it isn't a discount you get just for asking.

Does Tier 1 compliance happen just once, or does it repeat?

It repeats -- after a building's initial phased deadline (2026, 2027, or 2028 depending on size), Tier 1 compliance recurs on a 5-year cycle. Budget for it as a recurring obligation, not a one-time project.