Greater Boston biomedical portfolio due diligence
Assessing the net-zero readiness of a three-building biomedical portfolio.
The challenge
Biomedical and laboratory buildings carry intensive ventilation, process and cooling demands, often with heating and cooling required simultaneously. The approximately 945,000-square-foot portfolio included three assets at different stages of their lifecycle, ranging from an operating building to projects still under development. The assessment therefore needed to distinguish between improvements that could be achieved through operations, changes that could still be incorporated into active design, and larger interventions requiring future capital investment. Each asset also needed to be evaluated consistently against the investor’s long-term energy and carbon objectives.
The system approach
URBS assessed each asset through a common technical framework adapted to its lifecycle stage. Site surveys, historical and modeled energy data, and equipment reviews were used to establish current and projected performance against the investor’s 2030 reduction objectives and relevant CRREM pathways. For each building, URBS identified the infrastructure risks, available interventions and likely implementation complexity. Recommendations ranged from operational and controls improvements to heat recovery, hydronic distribution and larger system redesign opportunities where projects remained in development. URBS then consolidated the findings at portfolio level to show where exposure was concentrated and how the assets could perform together over time. Because the buildings have complementary heating and cooling demands, the assessment also identified a longer-term opportunity for shared thermal infrastructure across the portfolio.