What does a NYC building's energy grade mean, and how do I look one up?

Where the letter comes from

Local Law 33 of 2018, amended by Local Law 95 of 2019, requires the owners of buildings on the city's benchmarking Covered Buildings List to post an energy efficiency grade. The grade is not a separate inspection. It is calculated from the ENERGY STAR score in the building's annual Local Law 84 benchmarking report, which is due May 1.

The Department of Buildings sets the cutoffs:

• A: score of 85 or higher
• B: 70 or higher but below 85
• C: 55 or higher but below 70
• D: below 55
• F: the required benchmarking information was not submitted
• N: exempt from benchmarking or not eligible for an ENERGY STAR score

An F is therefore a filing grade, not a performance grade: it says the owner didn't report, not that the building uses the most energy.

What the ENERGY STAR score underneath measures

The ENERGY STAR score is the EPA's 1–100 rating from Portfolio Manager. It compares a building's source energy use with similar buildings nationwide, using the federal Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey as the reference, and adjusts for weather and for how the building is used (size, location, hours, occupancy and equipment).

The EPA's own reading: 50 is median performance, and 75 or higher marks a top performer that may be eligible for ENERGY STAR certification. So a New York C (55–69) is slightly better than the national median, and a D covers everything from 54 down to 1.

Not every building can get a score; it depends on the property type. Those buildings receive an N and, according to the Department of Buildings, are not subject to the posting requirement. Their energy use still shows up as energy use intensity (EUI), the EPA's measure of energy per square foot per year.

Posting rules and the October deadline

According to the Department of Buildings' Local Law 33 FAQs:

• the grade label must be posted within 30 days after October 1 each year
• it goes in a conspicuous location near each public entrance, between four and six feet from the ground
• failing to post brings a DOB violation and a $1,250 fine

Owners download the label from the DOB NOW public portal: open the Building Energy Efficiency Rating tab and search by borough, block and lot.

How to look up any building's grade

There are two routes, depending on what you want to know.

1. The official label. Search the building's borough, block and lot in the DOB NOW public portal under Building Energy Efficiency Rating. This is the grade the owner is required to post.
2. The score and the numbers behind it. The city publishes every Local Law 84 submission on NYC Open Data. BuildingCensus turns each one into a page showing the ENERGY STAR score, site and source EUI, greenhouse-gas emissions, water use and prior years. Search the New York City hub by name or address.

BuildingCensus shows a letter band next to each score using the same 85 / 70 / 55 cutoffs. It is calculated from the latest score in the published disclosure, so it can differ from the label on the door if the label was issued from a different year's report, and BuildingCensus does not assign F or N grades.

How New York's buildings grade out

Across the latest disclosure for 48,310 New York City properties in BuildingCensus, 30,430 carry an ENERGY STAR score. Applying the Local Law 33 cutoffs to those scores:

• A (85+): 9,105 properties
• B (70–84): 5,895
• C (55–69): 4,693
• D (below 55): 10,737

D is the largest band, more than a third of scored properties, and the median score is 69, the top of the C band. The other 17,880 properties reported without a score.

To see the extremes, the most-efficient and least-efficient rankings sort New York City buildings by their disclosed performance. For multifamily buildings, which make up most of the city's disclosures, the multifamily housing list compares buildings of the same type.

Is my building required to post one?

Only buildings on the benchmarking Covered Buildings List must post a grade. Which buildings that includes, and how to check, is covered in our guide to Local Law 84 coverage.

This guide summarizes the city's published rules; it is not legal advice. Questions go to the NYC Sustainability Help Center or sustainability@buildings.nyc.gov.