Bethesda Office Center

How does Bethesda Office Center compare with other office buildings in Montgomery County?

The latest disclosures cover 414 office buildings in Montgomery County, out of 1,766 buildings citywide. Bethesda Office Center's ENERGY STAR score of 77 compares with an average of 63 across the 325 that report a score; it scores higher than 61% of them and lower than 37%. Its site EUI of 50.4 kBtu/ft² is about 24% below the average of 66.5 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 174,449 sq ft, it is about 32% above the average floor area of 132,356 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1980, 7 years earlier than the group's average year built (1987). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 15,264 office buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 73 and a site EUI of 59.3 kBtu/ft².

How has Bethesda Office Center's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 2 Montgomery County disclosures for Bethesda Office Center, covering report years 2023–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 75 in 2023 to 77 in 2024 (+2 points). Site EUI moved from 51.6 kBtu/ft² (2023) to 50.4 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 2% decrease. Reported emissions went from 804 tCO₂e to 769 tCO₂e over the same span (down 4%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 77 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 77 means the building performs better than about 77% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 77 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 Montgomery County, 53% 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. Bethesda Office Center's 50.4 kBtu/ft² across 174,449 sq ft works out to about 8.8 billion Btu (2,577 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 140.4 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 2,555,354 kWh of electricity and 704 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Bethesda Office Center to report its energy use?

Bethesda Office Center reports under the Benchmarking Law (Bill 2-14) / BEPS (Bill 16-21), the legal basis of Montgomery County's Commercial Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record montgomery_county:10422926:2024). Montgomery County's BEPS (Bill 16-21; regulations approved in 2025) sets declining site-EUI standards for buildings of 25,000+ sq ft, with interim and then final standards later this decade and into the 2030s depending on building type.