Carlton Plaza

How does Carlton Plaza compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Kansas City?

The latest disclosures cover 292 multifamily housing buildings in Kansas City, out of 1,628 buildings citywide. Carlton Plaza's ENERGY STAR score of 48 compares with an average of 70 across the 123 that report a score; it scores higher than 25% of them and lower than 74%. Its site EUI of 55.2 kBtu/ft² is about 15% above the average of 47.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 91,152 sq ft, it is about 35% below the average floor area of 140,116 sq ft for those buildings. 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 Carlton Plaza's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 2 Kansas City disclosures for Carlton Plaza, covering report years 2022–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 99 in 2022 to 48 in 2023 (-51 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 99. Site EUI moved from 38.8 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 55.2 kBtu/ft² (2023), an 42% increase. Reported emissions went from 234 tCO₂e to 412 tCO₂e over the same span (up 76%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 48 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 48 means the building performs better than about 48% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 48 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 27 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Kansas City, 46% 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. Carlton Plaza's 55.2 kBtu/ft² across 91,152 sq ft works out to about 5 billion Btu (1,475 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 94.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,660 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Carlton Plaza to report its energy use?

Carlton Plaza reports under the Energy Empowerment Ordinance (No. 150299), the legal basis of Kansas City's Energy and Water Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2023 disclosure (source record kansas_city:12-MF-04760:2023). Kansas City's Energy Empowerment Ordinance requires annual energy and water benchmarking for commercial and multifamily buildings over 50,000 sq ft (and for city-owned buildings), with public disclosure of results.