A Boston City Council proposal set to be introduced in the fall will encourage building projects that create as much energy as they use, according to the Boston Herald.
"Boston has an incredible building boom," says Councilor Matt O'Malley. "We have an opportunity and responsibility to put forward environmentally friendly development. It's about incentives. I want this to be about carrots, not sticks."
O'Malley's proposal, which is not yet finalized, would provide incentives to developers who build "net-zero" projects, largely through the zoning code. O'Malley has been meeting with a group of councilors, city officials, climate advocates and construction industry representatives to plan the best way to proceed. The first of several proposals likely will be brought before the council in October or November.
Joan Fitzgerald, a professor at Northeastern University and one of the members of the working group, said buildings are significant energy users, and Boston's upcoming new construction boom is an opportunity to add better environmental options.
"You think of the opportunity already that we've lost with all of the construction that's underway now," Fitzgerald says. "Boston is LEED standard, but LEED doesn't give you as much as needed to accomplish what we need on energy efficiency. This is not future technology; we could and should be doing this."
Mayor Martin J. Walsh has set a goal for Boston to be carbon-neutral—meaning it produces as much energy as it uses—by 2050. He has said he will consider O'Malley's proposal but did not make a commitment.
Some developers are concerned about the practicality of the proposal.
"It sounds like a great idea, but it's not feasible right now, because if it were, developers would be doing it," says David Begelfer, chief executive of NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial development association. "To make it net-zero, they'd love to do it, but the technology's not there yet."
