Carbon Free Boston: Buildings Technical Report
Files
Published version
Policy Appendix (Excel)
Buildings Model Assumptions (Excel)
Date
2019-05-15
DOI
Authors
Hatchadorian, Rebecca
Best, Rob
Wholey, Katie
Calven, Alexandra
Levine, Erica
Tepfer, Sara
Swett, Brian
Walsh, Michael J.
Pollack, Adam
Perez, Taylor
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
Hatchadorian, Rebecca, Rob Best, Katie Wholey, Alexandra Calven, Erica Levine, Sara Tepfer, Brian
Swett, Michael J. Walsh, Adam Pollack, Taylor Perez, Joshua R. Castigliego, and Cutler J. Cleveland. 2019.
Carbon Free Boston: Buildings Technical Report (Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy,
Boston, MA, USA). Available at http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/technical-reports.
Abstract
OVERVIEW:
Boston is known for its historic iconic buildings, from the Paul Revere House in the North End, to City
Hall in Government Center, to the Old South Meeting House in Downtown Crossing, to the African
Meeting House on Beacon Hill, to 200 Clarendon (the Hancock Tower) in Back Bay, to Abbotsford in
Roxbury. In total, there are over 86,000 buildings that comprise more than 647 million square feet of
area. Most of these buildings will still be in use in 2050.
Floorspace (square footage) is almost evenly split between residential and non-residential uses, but
residential buildings account for nearly 80,000 (93 percent) of the 86,000 buildings. Boston’s buildings
are used for a diverse range of activities that include homes, offices, hospitals, factories, laboratories,
schools, public service, retail, hotels, restaurants, and convention space. Building type strongly
influences energy use; for example, restaurants, hospitals, and laboratories have high energy demands
compared to other commercial uses.
Boston’s building stock is characterized by thousands of turn-of-the-20th century homes and a postWorld War II building boom that expanded both residential buildings and commercial space. Boston is in
the midst of another boom in building construction that is transforming neighborhoods across the city. [TRUNCATED]
Description
Part of a series of reports that includes:
Carbon Free Boston: Summary Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Social Equity Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Technical Summary;
Carbon Free Boston: Transportation Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Waste Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Energy Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Offsets Technical Report;
Available at http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/
License
Copyright © 2019 by the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy.
This work and its associated results are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.