18-81 Steinway Street

How does 18-81 Steinway Street compare with other distribution center buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 234 distribution center buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 18-81 Steinway Street's ENERGY STAR score of 84 compares with an average of 52 across the 201 that report a score; it scores higher than 82% of them and lower than 17%. Its site EUI of 21.0 kBtu/ft² is about half of the average of 45.1 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 half of the group average of 3.5 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 27,988 sq ft, it is about 73% below the average floor area of 105,336 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1987, 24 years later than the group's average year built (1963). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 4,082 distribution center buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 65 and a site EUI of 24.2 kBtu/ft².

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 84 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 84 means the building performs better than about 84% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 84 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 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. 18-81 Steinway Street's 21.0 kBtu/ft² across 27,988 sq ft works out to about 0.6 billion Btu (172 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 37.9 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 74,388 kWh of electricity and 3,344 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires 18-81 Steinway Street to report its energy use?

18-81 Steinway 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 2024 disclosure (source record nyc:55445992:2024). 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.