One Milestone

One Milestone, a new life science project within the Enterprise Research Campus, is transforming an industrial site into a vibrant mixed-use development. The project supports a sustainable future through the creation of energy-efficient, healthy buildings and low-carbon construction methods that will be resilient to climate change.

As the Sustainability Consultant, Arrowstreet helped to develop and implement the project goals of Carbon Neutrality, Equity & Inclusion, Climate Change Resilience, and Occupant Wellness. Requirements of the Boston Net Zero Carbon policy and wholistic health building materials and Fossil Fuel Free plans are incorporated in the goals.

At the center of the Enterprise Research Campus is an extension of Project Greenway — anticipated to be the largest publicly accessible open space in a network of public realm connections that will stretch from the Allston neighborhood to the Charles River. The One Milestone building extends the natural environment of the Greenway with a range of outdoor terraces, green roofs, and a biophilic indoor environment that provides ample access to daylight and nature and incorporates natural materials and colors throughout.

One Milestone is 97% electrified, meaning it is all-electric for normal operations. This results in 44% less carbon emissions than code minimum buildings. The building will be Fossil Fuel Neutral (aka Net Zero) by 2026 through offsetting energy use with new off-site renewables. By 2050, the building will be all-electric with no fossil fuel use, except diesel emergency generators.

The project team set out to explore significant, cost-effective embodied carbon reductions in these types of commercial developments which dominate the region and are responsible for substantial embodied carbon. By implementing multiple replicable strategies and cost-effective innovations, the project achieved an18% reduction in embodied carbon compared to the baseline. The reduction stems from a 47% reduction in foundations and a 12% reduction in structure. The embodied carbon reduction and innovations, which were verified in the construction phase, were recognized as a winner of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center Embodied Carbon Challenge.

The project focused on health through improving acoustics, thermal comfort and air quality. A significant portion of this was optimizing material selections. One Milestone developed a robust approach to human and ecosystem health aligned with and in support of a wholistic approach to healthy building materials and Green Building Standards, LEED Materials Disclosure and Optimization and Low Emitting credits, and implementing the Living Building Challenge Materials Imperatives where possible. In addition to human and ecosystem health, the project also evaluated materials in regards to climate health and circularity.

Resilience strategies include reduced heat island through surface landscape and paving and vegetated areas through the floor levels. Stormwater burden is reduced through the reuse of collected rainwater for process loads.