Building Electrification: Accelerating Commercial Building Electrification through Science-Based Decision-Making Toolkit - MIT Center for Real Estate
Climate and Real Estate Multi-PI Research Cluster

Building Electrification: Accelerating Commercial Building Electrification through Science-Based Decision-Making Toolkit

Principal Investigators: Juan Palacios (lead)
Researchers: Siqi Zheng, Alejandro Valdez, Christopher Knittel
Year: 2022
Topics: Climate and Sustainable Real Estate, Urban and Real Estate Economics

Decarbonizing buildings through electrification is critical for governments and industry stakeholders worldwide to reach their net-zero targets. Over the past decades, a number of cost-effective technologies for electrifying office buildings have come online. However, the adoption of such technologies is hampered by behavioral barriers and market failures.

In this project, we propose the development of a comprehensive analytical framework that describes the economics of electrification in commercial real estate. Our framework will provide streamlined decision-making tools and behavioral intervention strategies for industrial stakeholders and policymakers to accelerate the adoption of commercial building electrification. 

Building Electrification: Accelerating Commercial Building Electrification through Science-Based Decision-Making Toolkit