Climate & Energy

The City of Boston is striving towards carbon neutrality while preparing for climate change and preserving our natural resources and historic sites.

Learn more about Boston climate action from the City of Boston’s Department of Energy, Environment, and Open Space.

City of Boston Climate Action Plan & Guide

Boston’s 2019 Climate Action Plan update will set us on the path toward carbon neutrality.

Want to take action now? Check out the City of Boston’s Climate Action Guide for tips for home, work, and school.

Concerned about extreme temperatures and emergency preparedness? Visit https://www.boston.gov/heat

Climate Ready Boston

Climate Ready Boston is an ongoing initiative to develop resilient solutions to prepare the City of Boston for climate change.

Carbon Free Boston

Carbon Free Boston is an initiative to prepare the City to go carbon neutral by 2050.

Zero Waste Boston

Zero Waste Boston is an initiative to transform Boston into a zero waste city through planning, policy, and community engagement.

DISTRICT HIGHLIGHTS

Boston Student Advisory Council and BPS Sustainability authored a set of BPS sustainability and green building recommendations, which were incorporated into the BuildBPS Phase II plan. These efforts have evolved into the Green New Deal for BPS.
As a city agency, Boston Public Schools follows the City of Boston’s 2019 Climate Action Plan and partners with the Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration on the Green New Deal (GND) for BPS, as first announced in 2022. Immediately for GND, BPS has published a Building Dashboard which integrates data from the SY22 Opportunity Index and information on each school building’s capital assets and environmental conditions. BPS has also hired Bureau Veritas Technical Assessments to complete a Facilities Condition Assessment (FCA), a detailed analysis that will produce a larger, in-depth dataset of building conditions and make recommendations for repair, replacement, and renovation.
BSAC and students from across BPS provided critical young people input to the City of Boston’s 2019 Climate Action Plan Update. Former BSAC VP and BLA alum Ahria Ilyas spoke during Mayor Walsh’s December 11, 2019 signing of an Executive Order requiring all new municipal buildings to target a Zero Net Carbon standard.
In partnership with National Grid and Steam Trap Systems, BPS Facilities Management completed new steam trap installations in 71 schools during 2018. A total of 6,900 steam traps were replaced at no cost to BPS, with an anticipated energy savings of 30% (guesstimated that 30% of steam traps may have been faulty.) This equates to an unadjusted gas savings of almost $200,000/yr.
From 2017-2021, the BPS cogeneration (combined heat and power) fleet generated $669,182 for BPS through utility rebates, AEC’s, and Demand Response participation. The earnings are revolved back into the repair and maintenance of the fleet.
Over the past 10 years, BPS Office of Instructional and Information Technology (BPSTechnology) has reduced the BPS on-site data center footprint by 50% through a combination of virtualization efforts and shifts towards cloud services. Additionally, BPS built a new, state of the art data center in 2015 that increased the efficiency of our energy and cooling systems for on-premise data and networking services.

SAVE ENERGY & WATER AT SCHOOL

BPS ENERGY & WATER USAGE

BPS utilities are managed and operated by the BPS Energy Division, in partnership with the BPS HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical Divisions. The Energy Division utilizes Building Management Systems to monitor and manage all BPS building utilities, and to find efficiency and conservation opportunities while balancing occupancy comfort levels. The Energy Division projects, monitors, and analyzes utility usages and costs, and reports this information on a monthly and annual schedule to BPS leadership.

District Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO) 2.0 requires all large building owners to report their energy use and carbon emissions data annually through 2050. Beginning in 2025, the City has set benchmarking carbon budgets for building types ranging from schools to offices to multifamily housing complexes and the City has committed to reporting energy data from all of its buildings to demonstrate compliance. Calendar year 2021 data (for which we have the most recent accurate and complete year of data) suggests the following about BPS emissions: 45,702.4 Metric Tons CO2e total emissions (35,686.5 Direct (Type 1) Metric Tons CO2e emissions, and 10,015.89 Indirect (Type 2) Metric Tons CO2e emissions accounting for 18% RPS (12,214.5 Metric Tons if you ignore RPS)); 4.11 kgCO2e/sq. Ft. weighted average carbon emissions intensity.

District % of energy obtained from renewable sources: BPS meets RPS minimum standards. In 2021 it was 18% and in 2022 it was 20%. That means that in 2021, 18% of electricity on the grid in New England (and used by the City of Boston/BPS) is verifiably generated by renewable sources. 28 BPS schools are currently enrolled in the standard CCE product which provides renewable electricity at 10% (i.e. 28% in 2021) above RPS. If you take 2021 data and account for additional emissions savings related to CCE enrollment, the aggregate percentage of electricity obtained from renewable sources was ~21%.

Domestic Water Conservation: Ongoing replacements of existing fixtures to code compliant and more accessible fixtures has helped BPS reduce its overall domestic water consumption. All new construction and major renovation projects will specify EPA WaterSense rated fixtures.

New irrigation & water management protocols for outdoor teaching and learning assets: To reduce water usage, native plants are selected and installed into layered landscape gardens. All plantings are mulched. During the establishment period plants are irrigated using drip irrigation to reduce water usage. Afterwards, irrigation is used only during drought cycles. WaterSense labeled irrigation controllers, coupled with soil sensors, monitor moisture levels in the soil. Smart irrigation apps will be used to monitor systems. Wherever feasible, stormwater will be captured from roofs and paved surfaces to water schoolyard plantings, and to create rain gardens and bioswales. For all new construction, permeable pavements will be utilized.
BPS SCHOOL ENERGY CONSERVATION
Efforts to conserve energy and water in all schools is essential to managing the escalating costs of utilities and creating a healthy school environment. The BPS Energy Division strives to decrease utility consumption in our schools through increased monitoring, equipment upgrades and repairs, and the sharing of energy and water conservation tips with students and school and central office staff.

Your partnership is vital to the success of these efforts. Use the BPS Energy Education Resource List for teaching and learning about energy.

Start by posting the “8 Simple Tips” BPS Energy & Water Conservation poster throughout your school!

Please note the following measures should be implemented in every BPS building, measures which will have a significant effect on reducing our utility consumption and costs, and most importantly, improve a healthy school environment:
1. When possible, turn off classroom/office lights to maximize the use of natural light.
2. Turn off lights when leaving a classroom, office, gym, assembly hall, etc.
3. Turn off computers and printers when not in use.
4. Keep fire doors and all exterior doors closed at all times. When possible, keep classroom and gym doors closed.
5. Keep windows closed during the heating season, especially at night and during weekends.
6. Report any water leaks to the Facilities Management plumbing supervisor.
7. Do not block/store items on any unit ventilators or heating elements, especially in classrooms and offices.
8. Only 3-prong extension cords shall be used, for safety reasons. These cords shall not be extended through doorways or in egress paths to prevent tripping hazards.
9. Any cooking of food must be supervised at all times to prevent fire hazards.
10. Building thermostats will be kept at 68 degrees during school hours.
11. Domestic hot water temperatures will be kept at 110 degrees.
IMPORTANT: Personal appliances (microwaves, heaters, coffee makers, refrigerators, etc.) are not permitted in the classrooms for reasons of fire safety and pest management, unless approved as an accommodation under district policy. Please use personal appliances in shared staff spaces only. For information about the reasonable accommodation process, please contact the Office of Equity at bpsequity@bostonpublicschools.org or 617-635-9650.

Thank you for your cooperation as we work together to save resources throughout the Boston Public Schools.
PEAK ENERGY DEMAND

BPS participates in the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and City of Boston’s program to reduce BPS Demand Capacity Load during the New England grid-wide peak demand times.

Typically, grid-wide peak occurs once or twice per year, for one (1) hour in July or August. Participation requires shutting down Air Conditioning and Ventilation (only) at BPS community schools for that one-hour period, thus reducing BPS electricity demand during the critical grid-wide peak demand time. BPS Energy Division usually receives an alert notifying them of the expected peak hour, then curtails the demand in certain high demand buildings by starting the existing cogeneration units.

In the past 5 years, BPS has earned nearly $500,000 in Demand Response and AECs payments, not including Capacity Costs offsets.
ARC + SCHOOLS: SUSTAINABILITY TRACKING & BENCHMARKING

In 2018-2019, BPS Healthy & Sustainable Schools selected 2 schools (Boston Latin School and Boston Green Academy) to pilot BPS use of Arc. Arc is a web-based tool that tracks a building’s performance in energy, waste, waste, transportation, and human experience. Arc enables schools to track and analyze these already-existing data sets in one platform, benchmark the data, and develop SMART district sustainability goals. Arc also provides students with hands-on-learning experiences related to data collection, data analysis, sustainability, and benchmarking.

Learn more about using Arc in your schools from our curriculum page at bostongreenschools.org/curriculum.