The Independent

How does The Independent 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. The Independent's ENERGY STAR score of 87 compares with an average of 82 across the 9,612 that report a score; it scores higher than 42% of them and lower than 57%. Its site EUI of 27.5 kBtu/ft² is about 20% below the average of 34.4 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 1.7 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 20% below the group average of 2.1 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 81,052 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 150,919 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2008, 20 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 87 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 87 means the building performs better than about 87% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 87 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. The Independent's 27.5 kBtu/ft² across 81,052 sq ft works out to about 2.2 billion Btu (653 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. The disclosure also reports 412,737 kWh of electricity and 8,224 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires The Independent to report its energy use?

The Independent 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:33911767:2024). 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.