217 Thorndike Place

How does 217 Thorndike Place compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 187 multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. 217 Thorndike Place's ENERGY STAR score of 69 compares with an average of 75 across the 155 that report a score; it scores higher than 32% of them and lower than 66%. Its site EUI of 40.1 kBtu/ft² is about 30% below the average of 56.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 30,000 sq ft, it is about 77% below the average floor area of 132,415 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1989, 16 years later than the group's average year built (1973). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has 217 Thorndike Place's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 Cambridge disclosures for 217 Thorndike Place, covering report years 2015–2017. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 67 in 2015 to 69 in 2017 (+2 points); its best year on file was 2016, at 76. Site EUI moved from 43.0 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 40.1 kBtu/ft² (2017), a 7% decrease. Reported emissions went from 87 tCO₂e to 80 tCO₂e over the same span (down 7%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 69 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 69 means the building performs better than about 69% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 69 falls in band C — below median (55–69). It sits 6 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Cambridge, 50% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. 217 Thorndike Place's 40.1 kBtu/ft² across 30,000 sq ft works out to about 1.2 billion Btu (353 MWh-equivalent) in 2017. Its source EUI of 94.7 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 220,986 kWh of electricity, 4,502 therms of natural gas and 973 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 217 Thorndike Place to report its energy use?

217 Thorndike Place reports under BEUDO, the legal basis of Cambridge's Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO), which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2017 disclosure (source record cambridge:B1782:2017). Cambridge's 2023 BEUDO amendments require non-residential buildings of 100,000+ sq ft to reach net-zero emissions by 2035 (reductions starting 2026) and those of 25,000–100,000 sq ft by 2050 (starting 2030).