The largest building owned by the City of Seattle, which serves as the worksite for more than 4,000 employees, has ended use of fossil fuels in building operations. 

As of Nov. 1, 2023, the 62-story Seattle Municipal Tower (SMT) located in Seattle’s downtown core is now fully electric, joining only 10 other buildings of a similar size in downtown Seattle that are now decarbonized.  

Building operations have increasingly become all-electric over the past several years. On Nov. 1, teams in Seattle’s Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) worked with SMT’s building management CBRE to remove the last piece of fossil-fueled equipment. 

“As the department responsible for the City’s more than 100 facilities and 4,000-vehicle fleet, FAS has a key role to play in the City’s sustainability efforts and I’m proud of the FAS teams who’ve led by example to move our City forward,” said Kiersten Grove, Acting Director of FAS. 

SMT was built in 1990 and purchased by the City in 1996. It serves as the official headquarters for many City departments, houses the City’s downtown Customer Service Center and is Seattle’s fifth tallest building.  

In 2008, annual greenhouse gas emissions from SMT’s combined natural gas and electricity usage measured 559 metric tons of CO2– equivalent to the pollutants emitted by 120-plus gasoline powered cars over a year. Burning fossil fuels like gas and oil for uses like heating, hot water and cooking causes a third of Seattle’s climate pollution. Moving a building like SMT from fossil fuel to fully electric reduces climate and air pollutants.