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The throughline, in one program

The Clean Buildings Accelerator

Stillwater Energy created and delivers the Clean Buildings Accelerator: small-group coaching and compliance planning for owners facing Washington's Clean Buildings standard, and now Seattle's, with separate programs for Puget Sound Energy and the City of Seattle. My part: key program design for Puget Sound Energy's first Accelerator at Stillwater (and a regional concept in 2021) and Ecotope's technical partnership on Seattle's version from 2022 through 2023.

  1. CONCEPT · AT STILLWATER ENERGY

  2. 2020

    Designing compliance assistance

    As Stillwater's resident expert on Washington's new Clean Buildings standard, I was a key program designer for Puget Sound Energy's first Clean Buildings Accelerator, adapting the cohort-based strategic energy management I was coaching (workshops, coaching calls, and energy scans) to compliance.

  3. Feb–Apr 2021

    A regional accelerator concept

    With Stillwater's leadership, I developed the Clean Buildings concept to lead program development with utilities, convene them around a shared approach, connect compliance plans to energy-efficiency, electrification, and market transformation outcomes, and generalize lessons from the first state-level performance standard.

  4. EVOLUTION · WITH MY SUPPORT AT ECOTOPE

  5. 2021

    The first Accelerator cohorts

    Puget Sound Energy's Clean Buildings Accelerator, delivered by Stillwater Energy, launches its first pilot cohort. Now at Ecotope, I start steering building owners to it while building Ecotope's Clean Buildings practice.

  6. 2022

    Seattle adapts the model

    The City's Office of Sustainability & Environment contracts Stillwater to develop and deliver a Seattle version for under-resourced buildings serving frontline communities. Ecotope joins as technical partner, and I lead its role: technical review, co-facilitating design feedback sessions with community organizations, outreach to large commercial buildings, the emissions-reduction planning pathway, and the deep energy retrofit coaching phase.

  7. 2023

    Initial cohorts and expansion planning

    Three cohorts in 2022–23 enrolled 24 organizations, 13 of them representing frontline communities, and a fourth began in fall 2023. In emissions-reduction planning sessions, Ecotope's audits for frontline sites turn coaching findings into measure lists sized to state targets, and Stillwater's expansion report recommends making it a hub for commercial and multifamily owners ahead of a city standard. I bring a hub-and-spoke model into that discussion.

  8. Late 2023

    Scoping the next sponsor

    With Stillwater, I scope an Accelerator offering for Seattle City Light customers. In December, the City Council passes the Building Emissions Performance Standard, extending performance requirements to roughly 4,000 buildings.

  9. IMPLEMENTATION · 2024–2026

    My involvement ended when I left Ecotope in early 2024. Stillwater and many utilities carried the program forward.

  10. 2024–2025

    Running at regional scale

    Puget Sound Energy's Accelerator, which partners with Seattle City Light for their mutual gas and electric customers, opens virtual cohorts through 2024 and 2025. The City's program for frontline buildings runs separately.

  11. 2025–2026

    Still running in Seattle

    Seattle's Accelerator continues, delivered by Stillwater for the City, and now covers both the city standard and the state's.

  12. 2026

    Threshold

    The coverage, deadline, and gap questions the Accelerator worked through building by building, now screened against both standards in one tool.

    How compliance teams use Threshold