Boston City Council Unanimously Passes Landmark Building Emissions Ordinance

BOSTON — September 22, 2021 — Boston City Council passes sweeping building emissions law in unanimous 13-0 vote. The council adopted an amendment to the city's Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure ordinance, known as BERDO, requiring roughly 3,500 large buildings — just 4 percent of the city's total stock but responsible for nearly 60 percent of all building emissions — to meet binding greenhouse gas reduction targets beginning in 2025 and every five years thereafter through 2050. Lead sponsor Councillor Matt O'Malley, chair of the Environment Committee, called it "the most impactful decarbonization law anywhere in this country" and said the ordinance would cut approximately 37 million metric tons of emissions over 30 years. The council also suspended rules to pass a $141,850 vaccine-access grant and an $84,918 port security grant, adopted resolutions on suicide prevention and reproductive rights, and referred a late-filed hearing order on Boston Public Schools bus transportation reliability — which saw a 57 percent on-time rate on the first day of school — to the Committee on Education.