Two Brattle Square

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

The latest disclosures cover 117 office buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. Two Brattle Square's ENERGY STAR score of 89 compares with an average of 64 across the 94 that report a score; it scores higher than 86% of them and lower than 10%. Its site EUI of 53.3 kBtu/ft² is about 32% below the average of 78.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 30,674 sq ft, it is about 75% below the average floor area of 121,167 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1994, 29 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 Two Brattle Square's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for Two Brattle Square, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 92 in 2021 to 89 in 2024 (-3 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 100. Site EUI moved from 39.5 kBtu/ft² (2021) to 53.3 kBtu/ft² (2024), an 35% increase.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 89 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 89 means the building performs better than about 89% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 89 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. Two Brattle Square's 53.3 kBtu/ft² across 30,674 sq ft works out to about 1.6 billion Btu (479 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 74.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 95,289 kWh of electricity, 13,103 therms of natural gas and 125 thousand gallons of water for the year.

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

Two 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:B1515:2024). 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).