WS Development, a large, privately owned Massachusetts-based developer, has signed a power purchase agreement with NRG Energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to electricity consumption at its New England properties by 100 percent.
The seven-year power agreement, arranged with the Direct Energy brand of NRG, covers eight buildings in Boston’s Seaport District and 35 of WS Development’s New England properties, including two Massachusetts properties — Legacy Place in Dedham and The Street in Chestnut Hill —where WS is headquartered. Direct Energy has a program for large commercial energy users with renewable goals.
In its announcement Tuesday, WS Development said the initiative with NRG, comprising about 14 million kilowatt hours, will reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 120 million pounds, equivalent to about 146 million miles driven by an average passenger vehicle.
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Chief among WS’s eight Seaport buildings that will benefit from the renewable power purchase is One Boston Wharf Road project, a 707,000-square-foot building whose office component is fully leased to Amazon as part of the company’s Boston Tech Hub. One Boston Wharf Road is under construction and will be Boston’s largest net-zero carbon office building, according to WS Development.
Other buildings within WS’ Seaport development to be powered by renewable electricity from NRG include 400 Summer Street, the future global headquarters of Foundation Medicine, and the One Seaport retail complex housing Bonobos, Equinox, Filson, L.L.Bean, Lululemon, Peter Millar, Sephora and Warby Parker, among other businesses.
The renewable power that is being purchased under the agreement is largely sourced from hydroelectric generating facilities in Maine.
“The only other greenhouse gas emissions from any WS properties would involve the use of natural gas for heating,” Yanni Tsipis, senior vice president at WS Development, who leads the Boston Seaport and Fenway projects, told WWD. “Typically the greenhouse gas footprint from heating with natural gas is a small fraction of the total greenhouse gas footprint of a property that buys retail power from the grid. In the Seaport example, the natural gas heating GHG emissions varies between 5 and 25 percent of the total greenhouse gas footprint per building so this PPA (power purchase agreement) will lower total greenhouse gas between 75 and 95 percent for our Seaport assets. It will lower greenhouse gas emissions by 100 percent for electricity consumption.”
Tsipis said WS has other initiatives to lower greenhouse gas footprints companywide that are not related to electricity consumption through the development of extremely high-performance building envelopes (components that separate the indoors from the outdoors) and high-efficiency HVAC systems.
Tsipis explained that WS Development properties previously purchased energy from various power companies but none were 100 percent renewable. “Retail grid power in these areas generally sources electricity from a relatively high proportion of fossil fuel-fired generation facilities,” Tsipis said.
“We are pleased to help WS Development reach their sustainability goals and reduce their carbon footprint across the company’s New England properties,” Scott Hart, head of sales, NRG Business, said in a statement. “At NRG, we are committed to providing our customers with innovative solutions that propel us toward a more sustainable future.”
The 23-year-old WS Development has more than 22 million square feet of existing space and an additional 7 million square feet under development. The vertically integrated company develops, owns, operates and leases more than 90 properties, including urban buildings, lifestyle centers, community centers and mixed-use developments.
Within the Boston Seaport district, WS development is transforming 33 acres of land, building 7.6 million square feet of residential, hotel, office, retail, entertainment, civic and cultural uses, as well as open public spaces. The Seaport is Boston’s largest development.
