Boston, Massachusetts

Population: 650,706

Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The city is home to over 650,000 residents and is part of a much larger metropolitan area that includes roughly 4.3 million people. With many well-known universities and research institutions located in the city and the surrounding region, Boston is known as a leader in higher education and in innovation. Boston is also a leader on climate action, pledging to become a carbon free city by 2050, which will require significant retrofits to its diverse and historic building stock.

BEI worked with Boston from 2019-2023 as part of our work with cities selected for the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge. Boston was selected as one of 25 cities for the Climate Challenge in 2018, which helped accelerate  its efforts to decarbonize its transit sector and create new programs and policies to accelerate building retrofits.

In 2021, Boston took a major step toward decarbonizing its buildings by enacting an update to the Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (also known as “BERDO 2.0”) with unanimous City Council support, which updates the City’s previous benchmarking and audit law to require reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Boston’s large existing buildings. BEI supported Boston during an extensive stakeholder engagement process for the ordinance, which was designed to take into account the needs of Boston’s diverse building stock and its most vulnerable residents, bringing public health, cost, and climate benefits to those most in need. The development of BERDO 2.0 was also informed by a Multifamily Housing Stock Analysis that BEI completed for Boston in 2019, which identifies common electrification and energy efficiency opportunities in the city’s multifamily buildings.

Boston began implementing BERDO 2.0 in 2022, which included updating annual energy reporting requirements and drafting regulations. In 2023, Boston seated a Review Board for the law that consists of two-thirds of members nominated by community-based organizations. The Review Board approves flexibility measures, including hardship compliance plans for certain buildings, and will oversee an “Equitable Emissions Investment Fund” that will be used to fund building retrofit projects that advance environmental justice.

Boston is also developing a Retrofit Resource Hub to help building owners comply with the BERDO 2.0 and meet the City’s decarbonization goals. BEI analyzed the funding available from existing programs in the region–including unprecedented new funding from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act  and the Inflation Reduction Act, resulting in  a Residential Funding Gap Analysis that identifies gaps in funding to assist low- and moderate-income households with comprehensive building decarbonization, including electrification, efficiency, health, and safety improvements. The analysis will inform strategic planning for expansion of Boston’s Retrofit Resource Hub and other regional efforts so all Bostonians equitably benefit from the City’s long-term transition away from fossil fuels in buildings.