1401 Walnut Street

How does 1401 Walnut Street compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Philadelphia?

The latest disclosures cover 768 multifamily housing buildings in Philadelphia, out of 2,379 buildings citywide. 1401 Walnut Street's ENERGY STAR score of 7 compares with an average of 59 across the 682 that report a score; it scores higher than 9% of them and lower than 91%. Its site EUI of 53.6 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 55.6 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 16,559 sq ft, it is about 87% below the average floor area of 125,469 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1950, 21 years earlier than the group's average year built (1971). 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 1401 Walnut Street's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 5 Philadelphia disclosures for 1401 Walnut Street, covering report years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 1 in 2019 to 7 in 2024 (+6 points). Site EUI moved from 82.6 kBtu/ft² (2019) to 53.6 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 35% decrease. Reported emissions went from 757 tCO₂e to 421 tCO₂e over the same span (down 44%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 7 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 7 means the building performs better than about 7% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 7 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 68 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Philadelphia, 35% 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. 1401 Walnut Street's 53.6 kBtu/ft² across 16,559 sq ft works out to about 0.9 billion Btu (260 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. 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 1,445,295 kWh of electricity, 5,242 therms of natural gas and 2,300 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 1401 Walnut Street to report its energy use?

1401 Walnut Street reports under Phila. Code §9-3402 / Building Energy Performance Program, the legal basis of Philadelphia's Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record philadelphia:5975210:2024). Philadelphia requires commercial and multifamily buildings of 50,000+ sq ft to benchmark annually; its Building Energy Performance Program additionally requires non-residential buildings of 50,000+ sq ft to complete a tune-up or certify as high-performance every five years, with fines starting at $2,000 for non-compliance.