The Thurston County Board of Commissioners has approved a two-year, $169,000 contract with Oregon nonprofit Earth Advantage to develop, launch and implement a regional Home Energy Score (HES) program.
The cost of the $169,000 contract is divided equally between the four jurisdictions included in the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan: Thurston County, the City of Olympia, the City of Lacey and the City of Tumwater.
Each jurisdiction — even the cities of Lacey and Tumwater, which have not yet passed their own Home Energy Score ordinances — is on the hook for $20,000 this year and $22,250 next year.
Despite not having passed Home Energy Score ordinances yet, the cities of Lacey and Tumwater have each incorporated the contract into their biannual budgets, according to Climate Mitigation Senior Program Manager Rebecca Harvey.
“They are setting up the infrastructure,” Harvey told the Thurston County Board of Commissioners during a regular business meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 1. “If and when they do approve the requirement, the program infrastructure will be there, and their stakeholders, their decision makers, are understanding that.”
The HES is a rating from 1 to 10 based on the energy efficiency of a home that must be disclosed in the sale listing. It is intended as a tool for homebuyers to better understand the annual estimated energy costs of a home.
Establishing a regional HES program 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.
Under the regional contract, nonprofit Earth Advantage is responsible for establishing the infrastructure needed to launch the regional HES program. That scope of work includes developing a customized regional HES report; launching and maintaining software tools and systems needed for program implementation; providing training, onboarding and mentorship to HES assessors; providing quality assurance of the scores produced in Thurston County
and partner jurisdictions; and analyzing program data and delivering summary reports to HES Program staff.
Earth Advantage is a nonprofit organization that has been an official HES partner of the U.S. Department of Energy since 2017, and has been recognized nationwide for their leadership, innovation, and scoring results, according to Harvey.
The contract period runs through April 30, 2028, unless renewed or terminated before then.
The Thurston County Board of Commissioners approved Thurston County’s HES ordinance on March 17, 2026, to go into effect March 17, 2027.
The Olympia City Council followed Thurston County’s lead and approved the City of Olympia’s HES ordinance on March 24, 2026, to go into effect May 1, 2027.
The Tumwater City Council voted July 21 to forward the proposed ordinance to its newly formed Tumwater Equity Commission for review. That commission would make a recommendation on the ordinance to the council within 90 days.
The City of Tumwater previously stated its goal was to take action in 2027.
The City of Lacey lists an HES ordinance as a “medium priority” on its 2026 work plan, and has not yet scheduled a vote.
Both the approved Thurston County and City of Olympia HES ordinances require those selling a property to obtain a home energy performance report from a certified private sector assessor prior to putting the 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.
Both the Thurston County and Olympia policies provide 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 policies aim 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.
While most public commenters who spoke on the topic before the Thurston County Board of Commissioners, the City of Olympia and the City of Tumwater supported a regional HES program, the HES was opposed in all three jurisdictions by the Thurston County Realtors Association.
Association representatives again opposed implementation of Thurston County’s HES ordinance on Tuesday by asking the Board of County Commissioners not to approve the contract with Earth Advantage.
“The question now is whether the county is ready to move forward with implementation. After reviewing the proposed contract, we believe there are still important questions that need to be answered before that happens,” said Thurston County Realtors Association President Dawn Baker.
Questions the realtors association has about implementation relate to compliance monitoring, how non-compliance will impact real estate brokers, and how agent-specific information will be used.
“These may sound like procedural details, but for the people who will be expected to comply with those programs, they matter,” Baker said.
Thurston County staff advised the Board of County Commissioners that Earth Advantage would develop answers to those questions as it sets up the infrastructure to implement the regional HES program.
Thurston County is serving as the contract manager, while the City of Olympia will lead the next phase of community engagement, which will include public workshops and working meetings with the Thurston County Realtor’s Association.
“We are thankful to the Realtors Association for staying engaged throughout this process, and we look forward to working together to ensure a practical and effective program rollout,” Harvey said.
The Thurston County Board of Commissioners approved the Earth Advantage contract with four votes in favor. Commissioner Wayne Fournier abstained from Tuesday’s vote, like he did with the vote to adopt the county’s HES ordinance in March.
Explaining his decision to abstain a second time, Fournier reiterated that, while he supported the goals of the HES ordinance and would not vote against it, he still didn’t have enough trust in its legal standing to vote for it.
“I abstained last time based on legal advice, and (my) concerns haven't been mitigated,” Fournier said.
He added that he was still worried about the county’s budget, which faced a $23.8 million deficit in 2025 and resulted in $9.84 million in cuts to the 2026-27 budget.
This contract was allocated into the county’s budget, and remains a county priority because implementing the HES is a top regional priority.
“This is not the thing to pause, from my perspective,” said Commission Chair Tye Menser. “Given all the input we've had and all the concerns raised, this is our commitment to try to work through those concerns.”
Said Commissioner Carolina Mejia, “The ordinance has already been adopted, and I believe that it's our responsibility to prepare for the implementation.”
For more information on the county’s HES policy, visit https://www.thurstoncountywa.gov/climate/home-energy-score
