Highland Park Building

How does Highland Park Building compare with other office buildings in Montgomery County?

The latest disclosures cover 414 office buildings in Montgomery County, out of 1,766 buildings citywide. Highland Park Building's ENERGY STAR score of 50 compares with an average of 63 across the 325 that report a score; it scores higher than 27% of them and lower than 72%. Its site EUI of 64.5 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 66.5 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 46,800 sq ft, it is about 65% below the average floor area of 132,356 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2000, 13 years later 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 Highland Park Building's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 2 Montgomery County disclosures for Highland Park Building, covering report years 2023–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 48 in 2023 to 50 in 2024 (+2 points). Site EUI moved from 66.1 kBtu/ft² (2023) to 64.5 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 2% decrease. Reported emissions went from 248 tCO₂e to 240 tCO₂e over the same span (down 3%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 50 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 50 means the building performs better than about 50% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 50 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 25 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. 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. Highland Park Building's 64.5 kBtu/ft² across 46,800 sq ft works out to about 3 billion Btu (885 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 153.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 672,706 kWh of electricity and 7,247 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Highland Park Building to report its energy use?

Highland Park Building 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:5906572:2024). 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.