Following Thurston County’s lead, the Olympia City Council voted Tuesday, March 24, to adopt its own version of a Home Energy Score (HES) ordinance.
Effective May 1, 2027, the new policy will require those selling a property within Olympia city limits to obtain a home energy performance report from a certified private sector assessor prior to putting a property on the market.
The assessor goes through the home and determines an HES on a 1 to 10 scale based on over 40 data points, including the home’s age, size, number of stories, foundation, windows, insulation, heating and cooling systems and water heating systems.
The HES is valid for 10 years after the assessment, provided there are no major changes to the home.
The assessment takes about an hour to complete and can cost between $150 and $350.
Like Thurston County’s HES policy, Olympia’s policy provides exemptions to low-income households and to those facing undue hardship.
The assessment does come with suggested cost-effective energy improvements, but the city’s policy does not require sellers to make any energy improvements to the home.
The policy aims to incentivise home energy improvements and better inform buyers about the energy costs associated with property listings, with an overarching goal of reducing greenhouse gases and being able to measure those greenhouse gas reductions.
“We are at a moment where local governments need to have courage when it comes to climate change, and unfortunately, we have a national government that is not incentivizing communities across the country to do so. We see the exact opposite,” said Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne.
While Payne and Olympia city councilors had reservations about the policy, specifically potential impacts to low income sellers and questions about the city’s ability to enforce the policy, they ultimately all voted to pass it.
“At some point, we have to do what we said we were going to do in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, and we have to act. And at some point in history, we have to do something different so that we can start to see something different, and that's how I feel about this policy,” Payne said.
The HES initiative is one of the climate actions laid out in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan, developed by the Thurston Regional Planning Council, Thurston County and the cities of Lacey, Tumwater and Olympia to reduce greenhouse gases in the region.
Thurston County also signed an interlocal agreement with the cities of Lacey, Tumwater and Olympia to further the goals outlined in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan.
The City of Lacey lists the HES ordinance as a “medium priority” on its 2026 work plan. The City of Tumwater reviewed the model ordinance on Feb. 24 and plans to continue discussion this year, with a goal of taking action in 2027.
Thurston County became the first county in the nation to implement a HES requirement when it passed its HES ordinance on March 17.
Olympia is by far the first city to add the requirement, as nearly 80 cities across the country, including Portland, have already established mandatory HES policies.
Stakeholders within the real estate industry largely opposed Olympia’s ordinance, who said the cost of mandatory HES assessments and the lack of qualified HES assessors in the area would harm the local real estate market and place undue burden on people trying to sell their homes.
Industry members similarly opposed the adoption of Thurston County’s HES ordinance last week.
