This marks 15th Year of Metro Region’s High Ranking.
The Washington, DC area was ranked second in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2024 list of U.S. metropolitan areas with the most ENERGY STAR certified buildings. The ranking confirms the DC Metro Area’s commitment to providing building owners and managers with the technical guidance, best practices, and training they need to make their buildings more energy efficient, save money, and reduce carbon emissions. The District has held the top one or two spot on this list, periodically trading places with Los Angeles, since 2010.
The DC area’s ranking shows how America’s leading cities are prioritizing energy efficiency among their commercial building stock. By partnering with its business leaders, cities like the District of Columbia continue to demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits of reducing energy use among buildings.
"The District Government continues to make substantial gains in preventing over half a million tons of CO2 per year by working with our partners in business and sustainability,” said Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) Director Richard Jackson. ‘This is a huge accomplishment, and we're committed to being a leader in building efficiency through the Building Energy Performance Standards program and the Affordable Housing Retrofit Accelerator. We're working to meet these standards and address systemic health and equity issues that have disproportionately affected low-income District residents by funding upgrades for affordable housing properties."
Cities are ranked on the list according to how many buildings in their area achieved ENERGY STAR certification in 2023. To qualify for the ENERGY STAR, a building must earn a score of 75 or higher (on a scale from 1 to 100), indicating that it outperforms 75% of similar buildings nationwide. In 2023, 631 buildings in the DC area earned the ENERGY STAR, totaling more than 169 million square feet of certified floor area. Additionally, these certified buildings have helped prevent nearly 582,000 tons of greenhouse gases and saved building owners nearly $220 million in utility costs.
District of Columbia law requires buildings over 25,000 gross square feet to annually measure and report their energy and water performance for public disclosure. Calendar year 2011-2020 benchmarking data for nearly 2,000 public and private buildings is available through DOEE’s interactive mapping tool. Additionally, buildings over 50,000 square feet are now required to meet the District’s Building Energy Performance Standards, which were set on January 1, 2021.
For more information about the ENERGY STAR Top Cities list, visit energystar.gov/TopCities.
For more information on the District’s benchmarking, and BEPS, please visit: dc.beam-portal.org/helpdesk/.