Have you ever wondered how much energy or water your home or office uses? Is it more or less than other buildings in the surrounding area? These are some of questions that the City of Boston found itself asking when mapping out the different strategies to reduce the City’s greenhouse gas emissions while writing the Climate Action Plan.

The process led to the City of Boston beginning to publicly report energy and water use for municipal buildings in 2013. The City also enacted the Building Energy and Disclosure Ordinance (BERDO), requiring Boston’s large- and medium-sized buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the City of Boston. Today, a report with a detailed analysis of resource use across sectors, as well as the raw data, is available for public viewing for the first time since BERDO was passed. This information provides a way for building owners, people occupying those buildings, and people who have money invested in those buildings to see how efficient, or inefficient, their systems are.

What does this mean for you? If you live in a large building complex, your building may be a part of the report, which you can find here on the live map. Buildings below a certain efficiency standard can more easily connect to programs and financing options to update their systems. This may mean lower costs on things like heating and water bills for buildings.

The public release of this data is an exciting step for Boston and our Climate Action Plan strategies related to large buildings and institutions.

Find the press release here, or read the report, download the data, and explore the map at: berdo.greenovateboston.org.