Complying with new climate-conscious building codes are an adjustment, people in construction industries say, but the adjustment is underway.
Cambridge’s latest effort to make buildings more climate-friendly include a requirement that new, large projects estimate how much greenhouse gas is created in the process, with accountings for carbon emissions coming several times over the course of development and construction.
The test period from Jan. 1 regulations – voted in the previous City Council term as part of a Net Zero Action Plan – extends through early April, and will bring additional changes that include a ban on all fossil fuel equipment in new construction beginning Friday. Hospitals and labs are exempt.
Designers and builders must even report what tools and materials will be used on a project.
“I think the only thing from our side is the learning curve and trying to get up to speed with the requirements and what options are available for us to recommend or pursue or collaborate on,” said Terrance Hayes, president of Siena Construction, based in the University Park section of Cambridgeport.
Alex Testa, a project manager at Siena, mentioned that while the company does not do much work with brand new-buildings, it still has to keep an eye on refurbishments and updates covered by the requirements.
“I think the code, it’s difficult right now, everyone’s learning,” Testa said. “It’s hard for us to try and learn when the code is triggered and when we don’t need to meet the new code, or if we need to meet the new code in a few years. That’s been the big challenge.”
Deborah Rivers, a sustainability leader and senior health care architect with HDR in Boston, supports the law, despite its added complexity, as in step with a nationwide movement.
“Having regulations in buildings, first of all, are a big piece of the emissions issues in urban areas,” said Rivers, who has worked in Greater Boston since the beginning of her career in 1978. “You’re seeing more and more – in at least the more sophisticated cities – a goal of carbon neutral by 2050.”
Green building requirements in Cambridge were introduced in 2010 and enacted in 2015 as a subset of the Net Zero Action Plan’s overarching goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “from the built environment,” as well as to prompt further improvements in energy efficiency, renewable energy and access to education about sustainability.
Its most recent amendment includes the pilot period for embodied-emissions reporting on new projects exceeding 50,000 square feet.
New construction and refurbishment of old buildings are to be compliant with sustainability standards known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Development. It functions as a green-building rating system to determine the efficiency and eco-friendliness of a building in a registration and application process with a review by Green Business Certification Inc.
A gold standard or above is required for buildings of more than 50,000 square feet; buildings ranging from 25,000 to 50,000 square feet have required a silver standard or above in Cambridge as of a year ago.
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Not surprising to hear that an architect thinks these regs are great. Asking larger development firms will also yield a “we are learning going to make it work” political type response. In reality the specialized stretch code has a host of bad ideas and it’s somewhat arbitrary when a level three alteration kicks in. Smaller existing structures will feel a mighty pinch and all those hoping labs or office will covert to residential should probably let that dream go.
Not surprising that a developer opposes building regulations. Profit over people and planet as always, huh?
Anonymous dude on the internet says stuff.