The Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard was developed to comply with  Chapter 39.35D.080 RCW. In 2005, the Legislature directed the Department of Commerce (then the Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development) to “identify, implement, and apply” a sustainable building standard to affordable housing projects funded through the state Housing Trust Fund (HTF) program.

Twelve technical experts in sustainable development were chosen to meet and recommend the best existing green building standard to apply to HTF projects. They chose Green Communities™, developed by Enterprise Community Partners, because of its focus on direct benefit to low-income tenants, its specificity and detail about what is required, its flexibility when modified, the willingness of its creators to allow the state to own and control the standard, and its reasonable documentation and process cost. Modifications were needed to accommodate the diversity of projects funded by the HTF and to focus the criteria on building practices, codes (particularly the Washington State Energy Code, WSEC), and the climate in Washington State. The result was ESDS v1.0, published in the spring of 2007.

Subsequent modifications and corrections have been posted as issues have arisen, but the publication of entirely new Versions has been tied to the state Code cycle and the publication of new versions of the Enterprise Green Communities standard (EGC). Hence, Version 1.0 of Evergreen (which went into effect on July 1, 2008) was based on the original EGC published in 2005, modified as necessary to reflect the 2008 WSEC. This was repeated for ESDS v2 (EGC 2011/WSEC 2009) and ESDS v3 (EGC 2015/WSEC 2015), and now for v4 (EGC 2020/WSEC 2018). In each case, a panel of stakeholders, including architects, developers, funders, and providers, was convened to discuss proposed inclusions, modifications and deletions.

Updating to v4.0

In 2019, Commerce convened an Advisory Team of stakeholders to engage in a process to update the ESDS. To view the list of ESDS Advisory Team members, visit here.

The Advisory Team worked through 2020 to review updated building codes and the 2020 version of the Enterprise Green Communities standard, culminating in the publication on November 25, 2020, of the first draft of ESDS v4.0.

First Draft of ESDS Version 4.0

Commerce initiated a public comment period to collect input on the first draft on November 25, 2020. This initially ran for 45 days, until January 9, 2020, but upon request, was extended to February 12, 2021.

An online public hearing took place on February 11, 2021. The public hearing can be viewed here:  

ESDS Public Hearing, 02/11/2021 (recording)

Comments received on the first draft of ESDS Version 4.0 can be viewed here: 

Comments Received on First Draft

In addition, a learning session was hosted by the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle (“HDC”) on January 14, 2021. The learning session can be viewed here:

HDC ESDS Lunch & Learn