Harvard Village

How does Harvard Village compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC?

The latest disclosures cover 1,799 multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC, out of 6,870 buildings citywide. Harvard Village's ENERGY STAR score of 87 compares with an average of 72 across the 1,618 that report a score; it scores higher than 63% of them and lower than 35%. Its site EUI of 35.2 kBtu/ft² is about 31% below the average of 51.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 2.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 37% below the group average of 3.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 85,279 sq ft, it is about 37% below the average floor area of 136,346 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1940, 25 years earlier than the group's average year built (1965). 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 Harvard Village's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Washington, DC disclosures for Harvard Village, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 32 in 2015 to 87 in 2024 (+55 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 88. Site EUI moved from 111.0 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 35.2 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 68% decrease. Reported emissions went from 434 tCO₂e to 203 tCO₂e over the same span (down 53%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 87 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 87 means the building performs better than about 87% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 87 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 Washington, DC, 47% 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. Harvard Village's 35.2 kBtu/ft² across 85,279 sq ft works out to about 3 billion Btu (880 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 70.7 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 481,451 kWh of electricity, 13,597 therms of natural gas and 2,527 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Harvard Village to report its energy use?

Harvard Village reports under the Clean and Affordable Energy Act / BEPS, the legal basis of Washington, DC'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 dc:PM4405068:2024). DC's Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) require buildings below the performance standard to improve over compliance cycles (the first ends December 31, 2026; later cycles run five years), with penalties for buildings that fail to meet their pathway.