Amanda Gassé for Zondits, October 15, 2015
Boston’s super old, super green buildings
Boston.com, October 13, 2015. Image credit: Riccardo Diotallevi
Large luxury apartment buildings are continuing to pop up around Boston – a stark contrast from the historic brownstones and triple-deckers that have been making their mark on the city since its founding.
The newcomers are modern and sleek, and many are making a point of including the latest in energy-efficient building design. But if developers really want to understand how to use less energy, a new report suggests there are lessons to be learned from those boring old buildings that went up a century ago.
The city of Boston recently released a report with energy information from many of the city’s buildings over 50,000 square feet, culled after the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance of 2013 mandated that big-building owners disclose their energy and water use to the city.
One of the metrics used in the study is the ENERGY STAR score, which is a number between 1 and 100 that shows how a building’s energy consumption compares to other buildings with similar uses across the country; a higher score means the building uses less energy. The national median is 50.