Homes, Housing & Sustainability

By creating abundant affordable homes near green, public transportation with safe, walkable, bikeable streets, Brookline will be able to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.

Fewer Cars, Lower Carbon Emissions

Very few people like their commutes, especially when the average commute time in the Boston area is getting longer as distances and traffic increase – a 10% increase between 2010 and 2020.

As one of greater Boston’s transit rich communities, Brookline residents generally do less driving than households living in distant suburbs with little if any transit. In communities such as Holliston and Sherborne, households have, on average, 2.3 cars. By contrast, Brookline has, on average, only 0.96 cars per household.

By implementing smart growth, Brookline will also achieve smart energy.

Old Homes, New Homes and Carbon

Communities are constantly changing, with renovations and new construction. New families want larger homes, young people and empty nesters want smaller apartments.

The carbon cost of changing our built environment depends entirely on what’s being torn down and what’s constructed in its place.

Even including stored carbon, a newly built multi-family building in Brookline produces a much smaller carbon footprint per household than the same number of single family homes built far from transit.

For example, renovating a library to make it more energy efficient probably saves a lot of stored carbon compared to building a new library. The use doesn’t change, so the “well to wheel” fossil fuel consumption plus stored carbon would be a straight-forward comparison between the carbon cost of constructing a newly renovated efficient building with a new, efficient building of basically the same size and use.

Replacing an old single family home or a one-story commercial building near public transit with a larger, energy efficient apartment building is a different comparison entirely. The carbon cost over time of the new apartment building has to include a comparison with the carbon footprint of families living in less walkable suburban areas, far from amenities and transit, as well as including the fossil fuel savings of heating and cooling multiple households living within one building envelope.