Rankings
Ranked straight from each city's official benchmarking disclosure — the census answers "which building…" questions with data, not press releases.
At a glance
BuildingCensus ranks the buildings in 24 US energy-benchmarking disclosures three ways: the most and least efficient buildings over 50,000 sq ft by ENERGY STAR score in each jurisdiction, and the biggest reported greenhouse-gas emitters nationally and per jurisdiction — 73 ranked lists built from 142,507 buildings' latest disclosures. By average ENERGY STAR score, Berkeley leads (87) and Philadelphia trails (56).
Biggest emitters
Highest reported greenhouse-gas emissions, latest disclosure year.
Most efficient large buildings
Top ENERGY STAR scores among buildings over 50,000 sq ft.
Least efficient large buildings
Lowest ENERGY STAR scores over 50,000 sq ft — the penalty watchlist.
Which city has the most energy-efficient buildings?
Ranked by average ENERGY STAR score across jurisdictions with at least 25 scored buildings, Berkeley (87), San Francisco (81) and San Diego (79) lead. The lowest averages are in Philadelphia (56), Chicago (60) and New York City (63). Across all 84,600 scored buildings the average is 70, and 54% score 75 or higher, the ENERGY STAR certification threshold.
Where do buildings use the most energy per square foot?
By average site energy-use intensity, the most energy-intensive disclosures are Cambridge (117.2 kBtu/ft²), Evanston (108.1 kBtu/ft²) and St. Louis (84.4 kBtu/ft²). The least intensive are Berkeley (39.0 kBtu/ft²), San Francisco (44.7 kBtu/ft²) and Miami (45.0 kBtu/ft²). The all-jurisdiction average is 64.9 kBtu/ft².
Which jurisdictions report the most building emissions?
Disclosed buildings reported 73.6 million metric tons of CO₂e in their latest years. New York City (28.8 million t, 39%), California (19.8 million t, 27%) and Chicago (5.2 million t, 7%) account for the largest shares. By building count the largest disclosures are New York City (48,310), California (40,029) and Los Angeles (11,498).
Frequently asked questions
How are the efficiency rankings built?
Each city list takes the buildings of 50,000 sq ft or more that report an ENERGY STAR score in their latest disclosure year and orders them by score, then by floor area. Scores are the EPA's 1–100 national percentiles against similar buildings.
Why are some buildings missing from the emissions rankings?
Figures far outside what a building of its type and size can emit — unit or data-entry errors in the city files — are left out of rankings and averages. They still appear, as published, on the building's own page.
Which city has the most buildings scoring 75 or higher?
Berkeley: 82% of its 284 scored buildings report an ENERGY STAR score of 75 or more, the certification threshold, followed by San Francisco (73%). The lowest share is Philadelphia's, at 35%.
How often are the rankings updated?
They are rebuilt from the latest published disclosures; the data on this page is as of October 2026.
About this data
Source: 24 municipal and state building-energy benchmarking disclosures, as published October 28, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: BuildingCensus, “Building energy rankings”, https://buildingcensus.com/rankings (data as of October 28, 2026).