Building Info

Holyoke Center as a High Performance Building

Holyoke Center is a ten-story office and retail building located at 1350 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge – the largest commercial building in the Harvard Square area. Over the past several years, Harvard Real Estate Services has taken a number of steps to increase the performance of this complex building. These include:

FY2001

Installation of night/weekend setback schedule software (reduces heating, cooling and lighting costs and prevents the emission of 2,890,000 lbs CO2/yr)

FY2002

Automatic light sensors in offices (reduces energy consumption by 173,140 kWh/yr and prevents the emission of 283,950 lbs CO2/yr)
Upgrading exit signs to LED (reduces energy consumption by 24,107 kWh/yr and prevents the emission of 39,535 lbs CO2/yr)

FY2003

Installation of Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) on the motors that control the delivery of chilled water (reduces energy consumption by 65,362 kWh/yr and prevents the emission of 107,194 lbs CO2/yr)

FY2004

Upgrading to high efficiency (96%) condensing boilers (reduces usage of natural gas by 1.6 million cubic feet per year and prevents the emission of 283,200 lbs CO2/yr)
Installation of 13 vending misers, occupancy sensors for vending machines (reduces energy consumption by 32,500 kWh/yr and prevents the emissions of 53,300 lbs CO2/yr)
Upgrade all garage lighting to T-8s (reduces energy consumption by 87,744 kWh/yr and prevents the emission of 143,900 lbs CO2/yr)

FY2005

Setting heating and cooling levels based on industry accepted standards and protocols (savings to-be-determined)
Educating tenants on ways to reduce heating levels (savings to-be-determined, depends on tenant participation)

FY2006

Installation of occupancy sensors in all ladies' and men's restrooms which will result in lights being off for an estimated additional 3.5 hours per day (reduces electricity consumption by at least 4,800 kWh per year and prevents the emission of 7,870 lbs CO2/yr)

Thanks to these changes, Holyoke Center is currently reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 3,752,579 pounds every year. This is the equivalent to taking 331 cars off the road (an average car emits 11,333 lbs of carbon dioxide each year.) Please help save even more by keeping your thermostat set at 66° F and closing your window blinds when you leave for the night.

If you have adjusted your thermostat and tried the heating tips, but still feel that your space is too cold, please fill out the Temperature Exception Form.