BERDO - There were fireworks!

Thank you to all that came out to our BERDO Round 2 event Wednesday night. How many other BIG events include fireworks? Ok, maybe they weren't our fireworks, but they were just down the street from our event

The Boston chapter of the Building Intelligence Group brought together industry leaders from designers to owners to operators to service providers to tackle Boston's building emissions requirements. This follow-up to our inaugural BERDO event from 2 years ago showed just how much the conversation has evolved.

We had presentations from Aidan Callan and Craig Stevenson to cover some key topics regarding BERDO and then had a panel discussion where we had Aidan represent the City as well representation from an owner, consultant, and implementer to cover how BERDO is impacting them and what has been learned so far.

Key takeaways from our speakers and panel:

Collaboration drives innovation - Aidan Callan, BERDO Program Manager from the City of Boston, covered details about the program and the operational details of Boston's building performance standards program. Aidan emphasized that BERDO

needs input from ALL stakeholders - not just property owners, but solution providers and supporters too. These BPS programs are new nationwide and need our collective expertise to iterate and maximize impact.

It's solvable with strategy - Craig Stevenson, President of AUROS Group, delivered excellent insights on meeting compliance through smart planning. His message was clear: this is math and we can solve for it. We know the potential of the building from physics, we can look at paths of getting it there. Like many other aspects of our built environment, we can achieve some great goals if we look at things holistically and plan accordingly. Owners look to do improvements to avoid fines, but there is a much larger potential for financial benefit being overlooked. The modeling and plan can show what the true potential is.

Real-world expertise - Our panel brought diverse perspectives on

implementation. Joining us for the panel were:

• Aidan Callan (BERDO Program Manager, City of Boston)

• Adam Jennings (Energy & Sustainability Executive, Consulting Engineer)

• John Forester (VP, Energy & Sustainability, The RMR Group)

• Kailash Viswanathan (Director of Energy, Arch Energy, a division of Consigli)

• Moderated by John Maw (Regional Sales Manager at Distech Controls)

From compliance pathways to NYC Local Law 97 comparisons, the discussion covered practical strategies for various personas across our industry.

The evening reinforced that BERDO compliance isn't just about meeting requirements - it's about building a more sustainable future for Boston's built environment through collaboration across disciplines.

Special thanks to our event partners:

• Mike McGrath and Verizon for generously sharing their meeting room for our presentations and panel

• BXP for hosting us at their incredible Hub on Causeway Sky Lobby - what a space! The rooftop deck and views made networking even better

• Tal Rotman from Pointr for sponsoring the food that kept everyone energized throughout the evening (I feel we need a session on indoor positioning)

• Boston Smaht steering committee for providing beverages

  • Brian Vaughn - Technify

  • Jim Whalen - BXP

  • Danny Klein - JLL Spark

  • Dhaval Shah - Schneider Electric

  • Lucas Turner-Owens - Building Ventures

  • Avish Bhalani - Distech

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this action-packed evening of presentations, panel discussion, and networking. The energy and engagement from attendees made for truly valuable conversations about our buildings' future.

See you at the next Boston Smaht event!