Case Study Background
Boston University first adopted a climate action plan in 2017, setting a visionary goal of reaching net-zero emissions for its operations by 2040, a decade sooner than the Commonwealth as a whole. As the owner of 15.6 million square feet of buildings in the city, BU has been working to reduce those buildings’ direct emissions and the climate impact of the energy and material the University consumes, as well as to expand climate education into undergraduate studies.
Strategy
In addition to energy efficiency and decarbonizing thermal energy needs, one key initiative to lower BU’s emissions is to buy electricity and the associated Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) through power purchase agreements (PPAs). BU Wind is designed to generate 205 million kilowatt-hours a year and match 100% of BU’s electricity usage. After an extensive process, the University achieved a major leap forward toward its net-zero emissions goal at the end of 2020 when BU Wind began generating power in South Dakota. While reducing BU’s emissions by 53%, it plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the US by displacing some of the dirtiest power generation in the country. By retiring the RECs generated from the project, the University is credited for using renewable energy.
“Building the geothermal system added only 1% to the total construction cost of the building.”
BU is also home to one of the City’s first fossil-fuel-free, carbon-neutral buildings, the Duan Family Center for Computing and Data Science (fondly known in Boston as the “Jenga building”). The one-of-a-kind building, whose design evokes a stack of books, is heated and cooled by 31-loop geothermal bore holes extending 1,500 feet underground, with no utility gas connection. Building the geothermal system added only one percent to the total construction cost of the building; the small premium is expected to be repaid within the first 10 years of operations and generate significant long-term savings after that. Thanks to diligent building operations and maintenance by the University’s staff, the Center has been exceeding its forecasts for energy performance since it opened in January 2023. The building achieved LEED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2023, the highest possible LEED rating for excellence in green building design and construction.
“Our strategy has been to invest first in energy efficiency and renewable energy that deliver the maximum returns. We can then use those savings to help pay to decarbonize how we heat our buildings which will be more expensive and more challenging,” including measures that will be needed to comply with BERDO, says Dennis Carlberg, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, BU’s Chief Sustainability Officer & Associate Vice President for Climate Action. “We are continuing to align our carbon-reduction plans with our overall long-term capital asset renewal planning. This means doing major climate-related work in our buildings in the timeframes that these assets are undergoing major renovations anyway.”
The Results
BU has already cut more than two-thirds of its baseline emissions of CO2 and CO2 equivalents.
Looking ahead, BU has begun a major renovation of Warren Towers, the largest college dorm in the Commonwealth. This retrofit will transform Warren Towers from being BU’s top greenhouse gas emitter under BERDO to being a non-emitter. Through maximum energy efficiency, shifting to fossil fuel-free heating and cooling, and sourcing of clean energy, Warren Towers will become a zero-emissions building and result in an 840 percent reduction in embodied carbon compared to the total carbon emissions that would have been associated with razing and replacing the building. Similar major upgrades are in the works for other buildings on both of BU’s main campuses in Boston – west of Kenmore Square and its Medical Campus adjacent to Boston Medical Center.
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