Boston Regulates Building GHG Emissions: The Next Few Years Will Be Very Interesting

Last week, the  Boston City Council approved amendments to the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance.  The changes are being referred to as "BERDO 2.0", which almost understates the scope of the revisions. As indicated by its name, since its original enactment, BERDO only dealt with reporting and disclosure.  Now, however, Boston will be imposing limits on GHG emissions from large buildings.

The limits will first be effective in 2025, will the limits declining every five years until they reach zero by 2050.  Significant negotiations went into the final version of BERDO 2.0 and the Council made real efforts to include some flexibility in the standards.  These provisions include: