540 BROADWAY

How does 540 BROADWAY 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. 540 BROADWAY's ENERGY STAR score of 96 compares with an average of 72 across the 2,519 that report a score; it scores higher than 89% of them and lower than 10%. Its site EUI of 37.2 kBtu/ft² is about 42% below the average of 64.5 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 3.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is about half of the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 25,050 sq ft, it is about 88% below the average floor area of 205,440 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1910, 30 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 96 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 96 means the building performs better than about 96% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 96 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). 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. 540 BROADWAY's 37.2 kBtu/ft² across 25,050 sq ft works out to about 0.9 billion Btu (273 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 94.4 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 233,054 kWh of electricity and 255 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 540 BROADWAY to report its energy use?

540 BROADWAY 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:12920146:2022). 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.