Following a meeting with almost a dozen chief executive officers of Boston’s growing Cleantech Industry, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced that the City is releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Boston’s first ever infrared scan. This innovative scan will allow the City to identify heat loss from buildings, which costs residents and businesses millions of dollars. The scan will provide the City with the necessary data to enhance awareness of this loss and drive greater adoption and enrollment in existing utility sponsored energy efficiency programs, a key goal identified by the Mayor’s Climate Change Leadership Committee and enshrined in the City’s Climate Action Plan. Participation in these programs is essential in order to meet the City’s aggressive green house gas reduction goals. Once conducted, Boston will become the first large American city to complete an infrared scan.

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“Boston’s infrared scan focuses Boston’s technological and innovative strengths on one of our greatest challenges: raising awareness about both the inefficiencies in our buildings, and the powerful financial incentives that residents can tap now to make improvements that will save them money while fighting climate change,” Mayor Menino said. “This is just another tool in which we are utilizing to further turn Beantown into Greentown!”

In addition to meeting the City’s aggressive green house gas reduction goals, the City is conducting the scan to better understand the energy consumption and human health impacts of the urban heat island effect, a term used to describe the relative warmth of urban vs. rural areas due to building density, the predominance of darker surfaces (roadways, roofs) which can retain heat, and other heat trapping factors such as pollution. The scan will complement the City’s Renew Boston effort by promoting greater awareness and adoption of residential and commercial building energy efficiency programs to drive consumer demand for these services, provide valuable marketing tools for private sector energy efficiency employers, and to generally improve market conditions for energy efficiency services and materials and green job creation.

The RFP seeks to identify a consultant that will detect and map locations of building rooftop heat loss and the urban heat island effect, across the City though acquisition of citywide aerial thermal infrared imagery (TIR.) This aerial TIR imagery will then be integrated into the City’s enterprise GIS system – making further mapping, analysis, and application development possible. The aerial imagery may also be used to assist in determining suitable locations to capture street-level TIR imagery. Street-level TIR imagery will be undertaken in select areas of the City where street configuration, set-backs, field of view, and other economic and technical factors make capture favorable. The City will then look to engage the public and energy efficiency/green building business community by using the aerial and street-level TIR imagery to produce online mapping applications, exhibits, and related promotional strategies.

The RFP is available now and can be purchased for $150.00 by visiting the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Office of the Executive Secretary, Room 910, in Boston City Hall. Responses to the RFP are due by July 19, 2010