Riverdale Country School

How does Riverdale Country School 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. Riverdale Country School's ENERGY STAR score of 31 compares with an average of 64 across the 2,052 that report a score; it scores higher than 14% of them and lower than 85%. Its site EUI of 72.2 kBtu/ft² is about 18% 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 5.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 4.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 237,842 sq ft, it is about 135% above the average floor area of 101,338 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1968, 15 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 31 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 31 means the building performs better than about 31% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 31 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 44 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. Riverdale Country School's 72.2 kBtu/ft² across 237,842 sq ft works out to about 17.2 billion Btu (5,033 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 141.0 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 2,603,016 kWh of electricity for the year.

Which law requires Riverdale Country School to report its energy use?

Riverdale Country School 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:6118341:2022). 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.