One Brattle Square

How does One Brattle Square compare with other office buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 117 office buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. One Brattle Square's ENERGY STAR score of 64 compares with an average of 64 across the 94 that report a score; it scores higher than 36% of them and lower than 63%. Its site EUI of 64.5 kBtu/ft² is about 18% below the average of 78.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 108,592 sq ft, it is about 10% below the average floor area of 121,167 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1991, 26 years later than the group's average year built (1965). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 15,264 office buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 73 and a site EUI of 59.3 kBtu/ft².

How has One Brattle Square's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for One Brattle Square, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 42 in 2015 to 64 in 2024 (+22 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 71. Site EUI moved from 99.6 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 64.5 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 35% decrease. Reported emissions went from 692 tCO₂e to 479 tCO₂e over the same span (down 31%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 64 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 64 means the building performs better than about 64% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 64 falls in band C — below median (55–69). It sits 11 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. One Brattle Square's 64.5 kBtu/ft² across 108,592 sq ft works out to about 7 billion Btu (2,053 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 157.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,633,956 kWh of electricity, 14,344 therms of natural gas and 1,013 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires One Brattle Square to report its energy use?

One Brattle Square 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:B1123:2024). 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).