Massachusetts Institute of Technology

OPEN GALLERY

Highlights

• Site – 169 acres; Building – 2.77 million sq ft
•  The planning tool is comprehensive, tying technical, financial, and operational constraints to design strategies, costs, and quantitative and qualitative metrics.
• The interactive planning tool:
• Identifies opportunities to integrate sustainable roof types such as increased thermal insulation, vegetated (green) roofs, blue roofs, solar photovoltaics, building integrated photovoltaics, and hybrid roofs into MIT’s roof replacement program.
• Provides information regarding the most suitable roof system, energy cost reduction, stormwater reduction, carbon emissions reduction, structural capacity, and life cycle cost analysis.
• Improves environmental quality on campus and in the community.
• Integrates the impact of an annual roof replacement program with current and potential campus-wide MIT goals and regulations.

Perspectives

MIT’s Cambridge campus is comprised of 133 buildings with over 2.5 million sq ft of roof area, over 42 percent of MIT’s land area. MIT made a significant commitment to address deferred maintenance, out of which resulted various initiatives, including an annual roof replacement program which would target most of MIT’s roofs during a period of 20 years. Simultaneously, MIT established a 32 percent greenhouse gas reduction goal in the Plan for Action on Climate Change.

The architecture/engineer (A/E) team developed the Roof Sustainability Planner Tool to identify opportunities to integrate sustainable roof types into MIT’s roof replacement program. The tool includes a life cycle cost analysis and gives a snapshot of cost and energy reduction. It also provides data for potential cost savings for each building (as determined by roof type). The A/E team completed an existing conditions survey for 20 buildings chosen by MIT, and applied the data to the Roof Sustainability Planner Tool. The information and tool outputs provided MIT with the information that assisted in campus planning and sustainability decisions.

The information included in the Roof Sustainability Planner Tool will allow MIT to develop campus plan strategies and prioritize improvements that lower greenhouse gas emissions, maximize energy savings, improve stormwater management, increase biodiversity, reduce the urban heat island effect, increase energy production, and provide more educational/research opportunities. It has become part of MIT’s workflow in decision making for their annual roof replacement program.

Project Team

Arrowstreet; also ARUP; Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc.