Health Co-Benefits of the Built Environment

Health Co-benefits of the Built Environment

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Welcome to the public beta version of the Co-Benefits of the Built Environment (CoBE) tool. CoBE was built by researchers from Harvard, Boston University, and Oregon State University to quantify the health benefits of energy efficiency measures in buildings.

This tool is useful to building owners, operators, investors, and others, who want to better understand the impact of their buildings’ energy consumption and are interested in reducing that impact. The CoBE tool can be used to assess current building performance and for future planning. CoBE provides a footprint of building portfolios— consisting of the portfolio’s emissions (greenhouse gas and air pollutants), climate impacts, and public health impacts of building energy use— while benchmarking emission intensities against climate policies. 

Click here to add your contact information to be notified when the CoBE tool publicly launches!

CoBE v.2 has arrived!

We are always working on ways to make this tool more meaningful. In this version, you will find enhancements that include:

  • Can perform impact evaluations based on user input data
  • Includes health and climate impacts, in dollar terms
  • Can calculate impacts for both electricity use, and heating fuels
  • Capable of evaluating impacts of both commercial and residential buildings.

“Expectations have changed: Buildings must be both healthy and green, safe and smart. Building owners and operators must consider such features or retrofit existing buildings to attract capital or talent. It’s a no-brainer from a business decision-making standpoint.”

“Expectations have changed: Buildings must be both healthy and green, safe and smart. Building owners and operators must consider such features or retrofit existing buildings to attract capital or talent. It’s a no-brainer from a business decision-making standpoint.”

Joseph Allen
PI of the CoBE Project
Director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program

“Climate policies are increasingly focusing on buildings. Yet health is not sufficiently included in these discussions. To help address this gap and improve public health, we have developed the Co-Benefits of the Build Environment (CoBE) tool. The tool helps decision-makers and other stakeholders to assess their current performance and qualify health and climate co-benefits to improve the health and well-being of people and our planet.”

Paricher Salimafard
Co-PI of the CoBE Project
Assistant Professor Oregon State University, School of Civil & Constrction Engineering

“Buildings play a lead role in the energy transition. As major energy consumers, buildings must be center stage to mitigate climate change and reduce air pollution. Our team’s work allows buildings to lead the effort for a healthy and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. With the CoBE tool we can bring this work to each and every building and help shape the energy future.”

Jonathan Buonocore
Co-PI of the CoBE Project
Assistant Professor Boston University School of Public Health
Resource

Introduction to the CoBe tool

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Case Study

Highlighted Case Study: Boston

Read the Case Study
Resource

Frequently Asked Questions

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Relevant Research

Aug 3, 2022
Inefficient Building Electrification Will Require Massive Buildout of Renewable Energy and Seasonal Energy Storage
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Aug 4, 2021
Reconstructing the Public Health Burden of Energy During the Last Decade in the U.S. – 3 Key Takeaways
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May 5, 2021
A decade of the U.S. energy mix transitioning away from coal: historical reconstruction of the reductions in the public health burden of energy
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Weekendavisen: Indeklimakrisen (Indoor Climate Crisis)
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