5 Cowperthwaite Street

How does 5 Cowperthwaite Street compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 187 multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. 5 Cowperthwaite Street's ENERGY STAR score of 96 compares with an average of 75 across the 155 that report a score; it scores higher than 74% of them and lower than 23%. Its site EUI of 34.5 kBtu/ft² is about 39% below the average of 56.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 211,715 sq ft, it is about 60% above the average floor area of 132,415 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2008, 35 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 5 Cowperthwaite Street's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for 5 Cowperthwaite Street, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 98 in 2015 to 96 in 2024 (-2 points); its best year on file was 2016, at 99. Site EUI moved from 34.9 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 34.5 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 1% decrease. Reported emissions went from 489 tCO₂e to 459 tCO₂e over the same span (down 6%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 96 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 96 means the building performs better than about 96% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 96 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). Scores of 75 or higher meet the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification; certification itself is a separate, verified application that the disclosure does not record. 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. 5 Cowperthwaite Street's 34.5 kBtu/ft² across 211,715 sq ft works out to about 7.3 billion Btu (2,141 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 67.0 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,092,807 kWh of electricity, 35,751 therms of natural gas and 3,894 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 5 Cowperthwaite Street to report its energy use?

5 Cowperthwaite Street 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:B1198:2024). 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).