400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue

How does 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue compare with other worship facility buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 17 worship facility buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue's ENERGY STAR score of 35 compares with an average of 25 across the 11 that report a score; it scores higher than 73% of them and lower than 18%. Its site EUI of 49.5 kBtu/ft² is about half of the average of 93.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 27,655 sq ft, it is about 11% below the average floor area of 30,966 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1985, 70 years later than the group's average year built (1915). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 1,035 worship facility buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 50 and a site EUI of 47.8 kBtu/ft².

How has 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score was 35 in both 2018 and 2024. Site EUI moved from 61.1 kBtu/ft² (2018) to 49.5 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 19% decrease.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 35 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 35 means the building performs better than about 35% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 35 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 40 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. 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue's 49.5 kBtu/ft² across 27,655 sq ft works out to about 1.4 billion Btu (401 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 69.3 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 80,509 kWh of electricity, 10,930 therms of natural gas and 374 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue to report its energy use?

400 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue 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 2024 disclosure (source record cambridge:B1838:2024). 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).