How one organization uses a certification system to make Boston's buildings smarter, safer, and better connected
- SmartScore is a certification launched by WiredScore that marks buildings as smart and future-ready.
- The score rates how robust the structure's technology, procedures, and user functionality are.
- WiredScore has certified about 100 million square feet of space and counting across Boston.
One Post Office Square, 10 World Trade, and 74 Middlesex are three buildings in the Boston area that have something in common: They're among the first structures worldwide to pursue a new certification system showing that they're on the cutting edge of technology and connectivity.
The certification, known as SmartScore, was launched earlier this year by WiredScore, an organization striving to make buildings across the globe smarter and more digitally connected.
SmartScore examines technological foundations - such as how robust the structure's technology, processes, and procedures are - and user functionality, including how well the building meets tenants' needs around health, safety, security, and other metrics.
Digital connectivity is essential not only for real estate and businesses housed in these spaces but for the city as a whole, Miller said. "It comes down to the foundational infrastructure that needs to be there for this digital transformation to happen," he added.
WiredScore has worked directly with the city, developers, and building owners to ensure the right infrastructure is in place to help Boston meet its smart-technology and digital-transformation goals and attract a broad class of tech companies.
WiredScore's certifications assess and improve buildings so they're future-ready
WiredScore was founded in 2013 in New York City as a public-private partnership with then-mayor Michael Bloomberg's office. Now, the company operates in 12 countries, including the UK, Germany, France, and Canada.
It started with the WiredScore digital connectivity rating system for offices and multifamily residences that assesses, certifies, and helps improve digital infrastructure for the building. The certification focuses on five metrics: resilience, future-readiness, the availability of cellphone service throughout the building, user experience, and the availability of a broader choice of providers.
The SmartScore certification was added in 2021 to help real-estate owners and developers understand what makes a building smart and why it's valuable.
The certifications are available for existing buildings, developments, and redevelopments, Miller said. The process involves technicians performing an audit of the buildings' technology and telecom infrastructure. Building owners are then informed of where their infrastructure stands relative to WiredScore's specs and where they can improve. For new developments, the company is involved from the beginning and throughout the design process.
Examining a building's systems, like entry controls, heating and cooling, and parking, provides data about how people use the building. Using the data can help the building become more integrated, sustainable, and healthy for the people who live or work there.
Digitally connected buildings can attract new businesses and drive economic development
While most buildings aren't there yet, many developers and property owners in Boston have been investing in smart buildings. WiredScore has certified about 100 million square feet of space across Boston.
"Smart buildings are where the world is going, where everything we interact with on a daily basis is smart," Miller said.
Some of the buildings in the Boston area that have been WiredScore certified, according to the company's website, include 10 Brookline Place in Brookline, Massachusetts, the Life Time Center in Newton, One Cabot Road in Medford, the Kendall Center in Cambridge, and Black Falcon Pier.
"If you're finding out that tenants and businesses, especially large ones, are coming and touring office buildings in your city and the buildings aren't meeting their connectivity needs and they're going elsewhere, it's too late," Miller said. "We want to make sure that cities are thinking about this from the big picture to say, look, we want to attract these businesses, they're going to impact our economy."
Sustainability, health and wellness, security, and safety are topics that come up often in real-estate and tenant-experience conversations. "Instead of thinking about technology as a separate pillar, think about technology above these characteristics and something that underpins all of them," Miller said.
Helping Boston meet its digital transformation goals
WiredScore has also partnered with the city of Boston directly, including with the Smart Utilities Program, on some of its infrastructure projects.
In 2017, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the city's Planning and Development Agency and Department of Innovation and Technology to identify which businesses and residences offer broadband accessibility. As part of the partnership, businesses applying for new projects and planned development permits must complete the Broadband Ready Buildings Questionnaire.
The goal is to be just as effective at meeting the technology and connectivity needs of today as those decades from now, Miller said.
"If the city is able to get this right, it's really an opportunity to attract the best occupiers to these buildings, a way to drive investment, and ultimately, get the best talent working in those locations as well," he said.