41 Alewife Brook Parkway

How does 41 Alewife Brook Parkway compare with other worship facility buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 17 worship facility buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. 41 Alewife Brook Parkway's ENERGY STAR score of 72 compares with an average of 25 across the 11 that report a score; it scores higher than 91% of them. Its site EUI of 26.1 kBtu/ft² is about 72% below the average of 93.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 48,125 sq ft, it is about 55% above the average floor area of 30,966 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1928, 13 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 41 Alewife Brook Parkway's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for 41 Alewife Brook Parkway, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 79 in 2015 to 72 in 2024 (-7 points); its best year on file was 2015, at 79. Site EUI moved from 28.1 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 26.1 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 7% decrease. Reported emissions went from 76 tCO₂e to 73 tCO₂e over the same span (down 3%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 72 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 72 means the building performs better than about 72% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 72 falls in band B — above median (70–84). It sits 3 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. 41 Alewife Brook Parkway's 26.1 kBtu/ft² across 48,125 sq ft works out to about 1.3 billion Btu (368 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 39.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 98,052 kWh of electricity, 9,197 therms of natural gas and 41 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 41 Alewife Brook Parkway to report its energy use?

41 Alewife Brook Parkway 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:B1705:2024). 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).