135 West 18 Street

How does 135 West 18 Street compare with other office buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 3,384 office buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 135 West 18 Street's ENERGY STAR score of 36 compares with an average of 72 across the 2,519 that report a score; it scores higher than 10% of them and lower than 89%. Its site EUI of 86.1 kBtu/ft² is about 33% above the average of 64.5 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 6.5 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 12% above the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 52,500 sq ft, it is about 74% below the average floor area of 205,440 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1896, 44 years earlier than the group's average year built (1940). 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 36 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 36 means the building performs better than about 36% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 36 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 39 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In New York City, 43% 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. 135 West 18 Street's 86.1 kBtu/ft² across 52,500 sq ft works out to about 4.5 billion Btu (1,325 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 196.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 933,442 kWh of electricity and 934 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 135 West 18 Street to report its energy use?

135 West 18 Street reports under Local Law 84 (LL84), the legal basis of New York City's Energy and Water Data Disclosure program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2022 disclosure (source record nyc:24241109:2022). Under Local Law 97, buildings over 25,000 sq ft face carbon caps with fines of $268 per metric ton of CO₂e over the limit, phasing in from 2024.