Challenge for Sustainability Program Launches 6th Year
December 30, 2014
A Better City kicked-off the 2015 Challenge for Sustainability on December 9th 2014 at the offices of Wilmer Hale at 60 State Street owned and managed by Oxford Properties, both Challenge participants. The event, featuring Brian Swett, Chief of Environment for the City of Boston, welcomed new and returning participants representing close to 50 million square feet of the city’s largest commercial real estate properties and major employers that are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities 25% by 2020. A special welcome goes out to the following companies and buildings that will be joining the Challenge in 2015:
AECOM: 100 Summer Street
Bard, Rao + Athanas Consulting Engineers: 311 Arsenal Street (Watertown)
Equity Office: 195 Summer Street, 100 Summer Street, 399 Boylston Street, 175 Federal Street and 500 Boylston Street
Jamestown Properties: 245 First Street(Cambridge), The Innovation and Design Building, and The Newbury Collection
KPMG: 60 South Street
MetLife: 655 Atlantic Avenue
Oxford Properties: 225 Franklin Street, 60 State Street, 125 Summer Street, and 1 Memorial Drive (Cambridge)
State Street: State Street Financial Center, Channel Center, John Adams Building (Quincy), Josiah Quincy Building (Quincy), Crown Colony Office Park (Quincy)
Coinciding with the program’s growth, the Challenge for Sustainability has launched a new website where participants and the public can access online benchmarking tools and sustainability resources including case studies and technical toolkits, at www.challengeforsustainability.org
The Challenge for Sustainability enables participants to track and measure their facilities greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint over time through our web based Sustainability Scorecard and facilitates the development of a Sustainability Action Plan aimed at reducing energy use and increasing overall sustainability. The Sustainability Scorecard is designed with busy property managers and facility managers in mind and allows participants to upload utility data directly from the EPA’s Portfolio Manager Program or through NSTAR’s Green Button initiative. This not only eases participation in the program but eases reporting to the City of Boston’s BERDO (Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance).
With the success of the Challenge for Sustainability, which has reduced greenhouse gas emissions 18% since 2009, the program is being looked at as a key component of the City of Boston’s efforts within its Climate Action Plan to decrease the city’s greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Through a Memorandum of Understanding signed between ABC and the City of Boston, the city is assisting with the expansion and framework of the Challenge for Sustainability in order to achieve targeted greenhouse gas reduction goals and energy efficiency programs throughout the business and commercial real estate sectors.
