Could two-family and single-family homes soon be subject to Newton’s Building Emissions Reductions and Disclosures Ordinance? That may be up for discussion next month.

The City Council passed the BERDO last year, requiring commercial buildings with more than 20,000 square feet of floor space to record and report energy use as well as take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has an energy reporting component for residential buildings with more than 20,000 square feet of floor space but not a greenhouse gas reduction requirement.

Last week, shortly before Mayor Fuller delivered her FY2026 budget presentation to the City Council, the committee chairs were giving their reports, as they do at the start of each regular meeting.

This part of a meeting rarely makes ears go up. But this time, while naming a couple of people his committee had unanimously approved for the BERDO Advisory Board, Zoning and Planning Committee Vice Chair John Oliver (subbing for Chair Lisle Baker, who was attending remotely and having technical difficulties), noted that on May 28, his committee would be meeting with the Public Facilities Committee, “to talk about BERDO for small residential.”

Oliver didn’t go into detail about what that means—what size homes would fall under the mandate, what kind of reporting would be required or whether there would be an emissions reduction component for any residential properties—but he emphasized that the conversation is new.

“This is a discussion item only,” Oliver said. “There is no language in the docket item to begin discussing an ordinance, yet.”

A BERDO is a locally imposed mandate for building owners to report energy consumption and report greenhouse gas emissions on a timetable to keep with state and federal emissions reduction goals. While climate change is largely exacerbated by vehicles and transportation, it’s estimated that about a third of the state’s carbon emissions come from buildings.

There are 356 buildings in Newton that qualify to be covered by the BERDO mandate.

Depending on how conversations go, that number could soon be a lot higher.

Stay tuned.