Nineteenth Street Baptist Church

How does Nineteenth Street Baptist Church compare with other worship facility buildings in Washington, DC?

The latest disclosures cover 88 worship facility buildings in Washington, DC, out of 6,870 buildings citywide. Nineteenth Street Baptist Church's ENERGY STAR score of 36 compares with an average of 43 across the 72 that report a score; it scores higher than 44% of them and lower than 54%. Its site EUI of 48.1 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 51.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 2.7 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 24% below the group average of 3.6 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 60,000 sq ft, it is about 22% above the average floor area of 49,290 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1951, 17 years later than the group's average year built (1934). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 1,035 worship facility buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 50 and a site EUI of 47.8 kBtu/ft².

How has Nineteenth Street Baptist Church's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 6 Washington, DC disclosures for Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, covering report years 2019–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 43 in 2019 to 36 in 2024 (-7 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 54. Site EUI moved from 52.6 kBtu/ft² (2019) to 48.1 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 9% decrease. Reported emissions went from 177 tCO₂e to 164 tCO₂e over the same span (down 8%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 36 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 36 means the building performs better than about 36% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 36 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 39 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. 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. Nineteenth Street Baptist Church's 48.1 kBtu/ft² across 60,000 sq ft works out to about 2.9 billion Btu (846 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 71.1 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 209,158 kWh of electricity, 19,060 therms of natural gas and 271 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Nineteenth Street Baptist Church to report its energy use?

Nineteenth Street Baptist Church 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:PM6719327:2024). 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.