Shamco: 538 E 21st St

How does Shamco: 538 E 21st St compare with other multifamily housing buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 33,022 multifamily housing buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. Shamco: 538 E 21st St's ENERGY STAR score of 88 compares with an average of 63 across the 22,829 that report a score; it scores higher than 74% of them and lower than 25%. Its site EUI of 58.7 kBtu/ft² is about 22% below the average of 74.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 4.0 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 24% below the group average of 5.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 44,696 sq ft, it is about 56% below the average floor area of 100,951 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1931, 21 years earlier than the group's average year built (1952). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has Shamco: 538 E 21st St's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 New York City disclosures for Shamco: 538 E 21st St, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 55 in 2022 to 88 in 2024 (+33 points). Site EUI moved from 88.3 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 58.7 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 34% decrease. Reported emissions went from 231 tCO₂e to 177 tCO₂e over the same span (down 23%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 88 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 88 means the building performs better than about 88% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 88 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. Shamco: 538 E 21st St's 58.7 kBtu/ft² across 44,696 sq ft works out to about 2.6 billion Btu (769 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 85.4 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 177,482 kWh of electricity, 20,201 therms of natural gas and 4,804 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Shamco: 538 E 21st St to report its energy use?

Shamco: 538 E 21st St 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:14947949:2024). 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.