Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita

How does Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita compare with other multifamily housing buildings in California?

The latest disclosures cover 10,630 multifamily housing buildings in California, out of 40,029 buildings citywide. Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita's ENERGY STAR score of 88 compares with an average of 82 across the 9,612 that report a score; it scores higher than 43% of them and lower than 55%. Its site EUI of 36.8 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 34.4 kBtu/ft². Its emissions intensity of 2.3 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 10% above the group average of 2.1 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 485,858 sq ft, it is about 222% above the average floor area of 150,919 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1998, 10 years later than the group's average year built (1988). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 5 California disclosures for Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita, covering report years 2020–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 75 in 2020 to 88 in 2024 (+13 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 99. Site EUI moved from 25.2 kBtu/ft² (2020) to 36.8 kBtu/ft² (2024), an 46% increase. Reported emissions went from 804 tCO₂e to 1,122 tCO₂e over the same span (up 40%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 88 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 88 means the building performs better than about 88% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 88 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). Scores of 75 or higher meet the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification; certification itself is a separate, verified application that the disclosure does not record. In California, 65% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita's 36.8 kBtu/ft² across 485,858 sq ft works out to about 17.9 billion Btu (5,240 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. The disclosure also reports 2,483,522 kWh of electricity and 105,310 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita to report its energy use?

Avila At Rancho Santa Margarita reports under AB 802 (Public Resources Code §25402.10), the legal basis of California's Building Energy Benchmarking Program (statewide), which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record california:16861410:2024). AB 802 requires every California commercial building over 50,000 sq ft to report energy use to the CEC annually; the CEC publicly discloses the results statewide.