56-60 East 78th Street

How does 56-60 East 78th Street compare with other K-12 school buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 2,301 K-12 school buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 56-60 East 78th Street's ENERGY STAR score of 8 compares with an average of 64 across the 2,052 that report a score; it scores higher than 4% of them and lower than 96%. Its site EUI of 155.4 kBtu/ft² is about 154% above the average of 61.3 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 13.0 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 170% above the group average of 4.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 48,796 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 101,338 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1980, 27 years later than the group's average year built (1954). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 6,548 K-12 school buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 64 and a site EUI of 52.7 kBtu/ft².

How has 56-60 East 78th Street's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 New York City disclosures for 56-60 East 78th Street, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 1 in 2022 to 8 in 2024 (+7 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 70. Site EUI moved from 158.4 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 155.4 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 2% decrease. Reported emissions went from 530 tCO₂e to 633 tCO₂e over the same span (up 20%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 8 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 8 means the building performs better than about 8% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 8 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 67 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. 56-60 East 78th Street's 155.4 kBtu/ft² across 48,796 sq ft works out to about 7.6 billion Btu (2,222 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 296.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,089,578 kWh of electricity, 38,653 therms of natural gas and 3,658 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 56-60 East 78th Street to report its energy use?

56-60 East 78th 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:6801943:2024). 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.