Mike Mattera
Striking and modern, designed for maximum collaboration, with state-of-the-art equipment to operate as efficiently as possible: When we opened Akamai’s new Kendall Square headquarters in 2019, we envisioned it as the future of office work.
Of course, not long after, that future was thrown into dramatic flux. Now, more than two years into the pandemic, the truth is that it’s still anybody’s guess how things will settle.
Yet amid all the lingering uncertainty about remote, hybrid and in-person work, we know that we are built for the future because of our ambitious approach to energy efficiency.
From solar panels to efficient lighting design to a system that collects rainwater for our HVAC needs, the Akamai headquarters is equipped with innovative technology and techniques to meet our energy and water needs while reducing waste.
State Action Needed
The structure was built consistent with Akamai’s long-term commitment to sustainability because we want to be good stewards of the earth. As a leading global tech firm, we also know it is good business to be sustainable across our operations. And so far, the building has proven the point: Even accounting for our different energy needs during the pandemic, we have seen dramatic decreases in energy and water waste — and, by extension, our utility bills.
We also see our building playing a small but leading role in the broader statewide effort to confront climate change. As Massachusetts marshals its economy for this fight, buildings of all shapes, sizes and ages must be enlisted. Right now, buildings are responsible for 46 percent of the pollution that harms our climate and threatens our state and its economy. Operating them more cleanly and efficiently will be critical to meeting the state’s goal of effectively eliminating climate pollution by 2050, all while delivering meaningful financial benefits to companies and residents alike.
Not everybody, however, is like Akamai – a global corporation focused on making life better for billions of people, billions of times a day, that had both the resources and the blank canvas of new construction to design for sustainability. Much of the work in Massachusetts will require retrofitting older buildings, while making it easier for marginalized communities, small businesses, residents of multi-family homes and others to access energy efficiency and building electrification programs.
It’s going to take robust statewide policy to ensure that every building owner and operator, every homeowner and renter, every institution, company and energy consumer can take advantage of this opportunity and help the state meet its climate targets.
Climate Bill an Opportunity
Some of this work is already underway. The MassSave program, for example, has been crucial to making the state’s buildings operate more efficiently and has saved energy users billions of dollars. A recent round of adjustments to the program will make it a better tool to help meet Massachusetts’s climate, energy and equity goals, and we hope it will be further improved in the coming years.
But cleaning all the buildings across the Massachusetts economy will take decades, so it’s important that even stronger policies are put in place as soon as possible to jumpstart this process.
Thankfully, Massachusetts has a chance to do so this summer. As negotiators in the state legislature work to craft an ambitious new round of climate investments and policies, we are asking them to ensure buildings are a major part of the solution.
One policy State House lawmakers are considering would track the climate pollution of large building owners each year. Inspired by the Better Buildings Act from state Sen. Becca Rausch and state Rep. Maria Robinson, this idea is already required in different forms in both Boston and Cambridge, as well as other states with ambitious climate targets like Colorado and Washington. It should be included in any climate bill this session, because measurement is the first step toward solving any challenge – in this case, helping companies evaluate their energy use while setting new targets and plans that reduce waste and save money.
After all, at a time when the future of work is still unclear, planning for energy usage and costs is one way for companies to lock in some predictability as they turn toward the economy of tomorrow.
Mike Mattera is the director of corporate sustainability and ESG officer for Akamai Technologies.
