Portola Hills Elementary

How does Portola Hills 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. Portola Hills Elementary's ENERGY STAR score of 85 compares with an average of 74 across the 2,016 that report a score; it scores higher than 56% of them and lower than 42%. Its site EUI of 21.3 kBtu/ft² is about 38% below 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 1.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 30% below the group average of 2.0 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 56,560 sq ft, it is about 56% below the average floor area of 129,123 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1992, 16 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 Portola Hills Elementary's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 California disclosures for Portola Hills Elementary, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 76 in 2022 to 85 in 2024 (+9 points). Site EUI moved from 21.5 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 21.3 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 1% decrease. Reported emissions went from 86 tCO₂e to 80 tCO₂e over the same span (down 7%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 85 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 85 means the building performs better than about 85% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 85 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. Portola Hills Elementary's 21.3 kBtu/ft² across 56,560 sq ft works out to about 1.2 billion Btu (353 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. The disclosure also reports 352,734 kWh of electricity for the year.

Which law requires Portola Hills Elementary to report its energy use?

Portola Hills 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:27494971:2024). 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.