Sustainable Affordable Housing: Boston, MA

Sustainable Affordable Housing: Boston, MA

After the City of Boston adopted a sustainable building ordinance, the Department of Neighborhood Development revised its affordable housing program to include design standards requiring LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes Silver quality design and construction.

The city's approach to affordable housing is to implement as many sustainable strategies as reasonable.  It recognizes the value of high performance homes relative to resource efficiency, maintenance requirements, tenant longevity.  Homes must qualify for Energy Star and LEED Homes Silver.  LEED certification is not required but must be attainable.  Larger projects are required to exceed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 by a minimum of 20%.  Advancing framing techniques are also required.  Regional requirements for indoor environmental health are required to reduce asthma and other respiratory problems. 
 
Scroll down to download the model ordinance.
 

Video: Affordable Housing

 


Video: Energy Efficiency


A measure of a building's or product's energy performance compared with that of similar buildings or products, as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency / U.S. Department of Energy's ENERGY STARŪ Portfolio Manager. Energy efficiency is the process of using less energy to produce the same or increased functions. Often used mistakenly as a synonym for ENERGY CONSERVATION. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to measure energy efficiency. It provides a standard for environmentally sustainable construction.The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.

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