Brown Elementary

How does Brown Elementary compare with other K-12 school buildings in California?

The latest disclosures cover 2,128 K-12 school buildings in California, out of 40,029 buildings citywide. Brown Elementary's ENERGY STAR score of 81 compares with an average of 74 across the 2,016 that report a score; it scores higher than 50% of them and lower than 48%. Its site EUI of 31.7 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 34.6 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 2.0 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 2.0 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 54,650 sq ft, it is about 58% below the average floor area of 129,123 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2013, 37 years later than the group's average year built (1976). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 6,548 K-12 school buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 64 and a site EUI of 52.7 kBtu/ft².

How has Brown Elementary's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 California disclosures for Brown Elementary, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 82 in 2022 to 81 in 2024 (-1 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 89. Site EUI moved from 31.5 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 31.7 kBtu/ft² (2024), an 1% increase. Reported emissions went from 115 tCO₂e to 112 tCO₂e over the same span (down 2%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 81 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 81 means the building performs better than about 81% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 81 falls in band B — above median (70–84). 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. Brown Elementary's 31.7 kBtu/ft² across 54,650 sq ft works out to about 1.7 billion Btu (508 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. The disclosure also reports 453,999 kWh of electricity and 1,774 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Brown Elementary to report its energy use?

Brown Elementary 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:3982901:2024). 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.