Worcester Business Journal

6 Worcester Business Journal | December 1, 2025 | wbjournal.com Sticking with sustainability Despite business and political pressures, Worcester's specialized stretch codes are here to stay, presenting firms with experience in green building an edge BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor I n September 2023, the Worcester City Council voted 10-1 to adopt specialized stretch codes, part of its mission to create the greenest midsized city in the country. e most stringent of the three levels of building energy codes in Massachu- setts, specialized stretch codes seek to advance buildings toward having net-zero emissions, with requirements like pre-wiring buildings for electrifica- tion and requiring solar installations on available roofs and parking areas. Tackling building-related emis- sions will be critical toward the City of Worcester's goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2045, as operations of buildings account for 30% of global final energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Since specialized stretch codes were developed in 2021 by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, 54 other municipalities, accounting for about 31.5% of the state's population, joined Worcester in adopting the codes. e change in codes has not been without its critics. Some local real estate executives have relayed stories of the codes are scaring away developers who would otherwise be interested in build- ing in Worcester. During the city council debate, Jon Weaver, president and CEO of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, expressed support for the overall prem- ise of building green, but warned certain aspects of the code may hinder biotech growth in the city. e political and economic climate has shied significantly since the codes were implemented. Construction and labor costs have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the President Donald Trump Administration's attitude toward sustainability and climate change has cast a shadow over green economy. Despite changing federal attitudes and some grumbling from the development world, Worcester's stretch codes are here to stay, said John Odell, chief sustain- ability officer for the City. "e state certainly has not backed down, which is great," Odell said. "Here in the city, we're boarding the same boat. We're not backing down either. is is actually a good thing for economic reasons as well as environ- mental reasons. So onward we go." The new standard Odell has been taken aback by the Trump Administration's attitude toward sustainability, but it hasn't undermined the City's commitment to specialized stretch codes and environmental efforts. "I must say the challenge was pretty daunting before the new administra- tion," he said. "Under the current ad- ministration, I don't think most people thought there would be such a pullback." e shi in federal approach has created some uncertainty, but the sustainable construction space hasn't been hit as hard as industries like solar or offshore wind, said James Moriarty, chief product officer and co-founder of Sustainable Comfort, a Worcester-based consulting, construction, development, and property management firm. "Massachusetts can pass its own codes, and a lot of the incentives the states are still there," Moriarty said. "e Afford- able Housing Tax Credits are still coming from the federal sources. It's more of a lost opportunity than it is a hold back." Despite the noise, Odell has stayed consistent with his arguments in favor of the code, saying they create a higher standard of building. While costs are a top-of-mind for developers, Odell says once builders get one project under the new codes completed, that experience can actually lead to future savings. "It's probable the first project that they build may cost anywhere from 1% to 3% more for developers," Odell said, "but by the second and all subsequent development under the code for those developers, the total cost will actually be less than what would have been using the standard code." Having an all-electric set-up is one factor in lowering costs, Odell said, eliminating the need to build out sepa- rate fossil fuel infrastructure. Yet, experi- ence building under the stretch code is a big driver in eventual savings. "Mistakes cost money, and the fewer mistakes you make, the less money you'll spend fixing them," he said. "So that's a big piece of it." Worcester is hardly an outlier in its movement toward more green buildings. While the topic is oen framed from an environmental viewpoint, this new wave of construction and design is really about more than that, said Ken Neu- hauser, president of Worcester-based Building Evolution Corp. Neuhauser's firm views energy effi- ciency as the end result of constructing a high-quality building. "We developed an understanding that the energy efficiency is the tail of the dog," he said. "It's the thing that we get when we get the building right." Neuhauser said there aren't enough data points for Worcester to measure the impact of specialized stretch codes, but he said higher sustainability standards is the direction the majority of the devel- opment world are heading toward. "We recognize that some development has an internal business imperative to be high performance anyway," he said. "Affordable housing and institutional developers have already been doing passive buildings, or very close to it. So there's not much of a li for those kinds of developers, but for the kind of development activity that does not have the internal business imperative for high performance, it's more of a struggle." Market-rate housing development has been the slowest to adapt, particularly with developers looking to build and PHOTO | COURTESY OF F.W. MADIGAN John Odell, City of Worcester chief sustainability officer James Moriarty, co-founder of Sustainable Comfort Developer WinnCompanies and construction firm F.W. Madigan are building the Residences on Lincoln Square to passive house standards.

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