Santa Maria (0309)

How does Santa Maria (0309) compare with other retail store buildings in California?

The latest disclosures cover 1,742 retail store buildings in California, out of 40,029 buildings citywide. Santa Maria (0309)'s ENERGY STAR score of 80 compares with an average of 76 across the 1,305 that report a score; it scores higher than 34% of them and lower than 65%. Its site EUI of 51.4 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 53.2 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 3.3 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 3.3 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 109,503 sq ft, it is about 12% below the average floor area of 124,053 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1987, 4 years earlier than the group's average year built (1991). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 3,025 retail store buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 73 and a site EUI of 57.7 kBtu/ft².

How has Santa Maria (0309)'s energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 7 California disclosures for Santa Maria (0309), covering report years 2018–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 67 in 2018 to 80 in 2024 (+13 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 84. Site EUI moved from 59.1 kBtu/ft² (2018) to 51.4 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 13% decrease. Reported emissions went from 447 tCO₂e to 362 tCO₂e over the same span (down 19%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 80 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 80 means the building performs better than about 80% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 80 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. Santa Maria (0309)'s 51.4 kBtu/ft² across 109,503 sq ft works out to about 5.6 billion Btu (1,650 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. The disclosure also reports 1,461,862 kWh of electricity and 5,889 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Santa Maria (0309) to report its energy use?

Santa Maria (0309) 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:1547352:2024). 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.