What is the Local Law 33 energy grade?
Local Law 33 passed the City Council on December 19, 2017 and was approved by the Mayor on January 8, 2018 (Local Law 33 of 2018 (City Clerk certification)). It added a scoring step to the benchmarking article of the Administrative Code: in 2020 and every calendar year after, a covered building's owner must use the benchmarking tool to give DOB an energy efficiency score, which DOB turns into a letter grade (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.2 (LL33/2018)). Local Law 95 — passed April 18, 2019 and returned unsigned by the Mayor on May 20, 2019 — changed the grade cutoffs before the first labels went out (Local Law 95 of 2019 (City Clerk certification)).
The score itself is the 1–100 ENERGY STAR score a building earns in EPA's ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager — the same tool that produces the annual Local Law 84 benchmarking submission (DOB LL33 Steps to Compliance; NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1). DOB's implementing amendment to the benchmarking rule took effect February 20, 2020 and made posting an annual requirement beginning that year (1 RCNY §103-06 Notice of Adoption (eff. 2/20/2020)).
Local Law 33 is a disclosure requirement — a score and a grade, posted where the public can see them — and is separate from Local Law 97, which this site covers in its own guide. The statutory sections cited here were read from the enacted local-law texts (LL33/2018 and LL95/2019), not the consolidated code, and are corroborated against DOB's rule and guidance.
NYC energy grade scale: what score gets an A, B, C or D
The grade follows the ENERGY STAR score in four bands, with two more letters for buildings that have no usable score:
| A | Score of 85 or higher (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (as amended by LL95/2019); DOB Energy Grading page) |
|---|---|
| B | Score of 70 or higher but below 85 (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (as amended by LL95/2019); DOB Energy Grading page) |
| C | Score of 55 or higher but below 70 (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (as amended by LL95/2019); DOB Energy Grading page) |
| D | Score below 55 (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (as amended by LL95/2019); DOB Energy Grading page) |
| F | Required benchmarking not submitted — no score was provided through the benchmarking tool (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (LL33/2018); DOB LL33 FAQs) |
| N | Not feasible to score under DOB rules, or covered by the §28-309.8 disclosure exception (a building whose data center, TV studio and/or trading floor together exceed 10% of gross square footage) (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (LL33/2018)) |
These are not the original numbers. As enacted, Local Law 33 set an A at 90, a B at 50 and a C at 20; Local Law 95 of 2019 struck those and substituted 85, 70 and 55 — the bracketed figures in the amending text are the deleted originals (Local Law 95 of 2019 §1 (amending §28-309.12.1)). An A got slightly easier and every other letter harder to hold: a score of 60, a B under the 2018 text, is a C today.
The scale has exactly six letters — A through D, F or N (1 RCNY §103-06 Notice of Adoption (eff. 2/20/2020)) — and no E. DOB's Energy Grading page shows these cutoffs today (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (as amended by LL95/2019); DOB Energy Grading page), but we could not read the consolidated code to confirm there has been no amendment after Local Law 95, so treat the bands as enacted text corroborated by DOB, not a verbatim quotation of current code.
What do F and N energy grades mean?
An F is not a low score — it is the grade for a building with no score. By statute it applies when the owner has not complied with the annual scoring requirement in §28-309.12.2 and has had an opportunity to be heard (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (LL33/2018)). In practice DOB assigns it to buildings whose required benchmarking was not submitted on time, and issues it as a Building Energy Efficiency Rating label like any other grade (DOB LL33 FAQs). That label must still go up — within 30 days after October 1, near each public entrance, until October 1 of the following year (DOB LL33 FAQs).
An N means the building could not be scored: DOB rules say a score is not feasible, or the building falls under the disclosure exception in §28-309.8 — a building whose data center, television studio and/or trading floor together exceed 10% of gross square footage, whose score the statute says shall not be disclosed (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.1 (LL33/2018)). DOB's typical cases are multifamily buildings with fewer than 20 units, enclosed parking, mixed-use buildings that miss the scoring test (75% of gross floor area in eligible property types, over 50% in one type), and buildings where data centers, TV studios or trading floors exceed 10% of gross floor area (DOB LL33 FAQs).
N-grade buildings do not post. DOB states that N-grade buildings — those exempted from benchmarking or not covered by the ENERGY STAR program — are not subject to the posting requirement (DOB LL33 FAQs); the statute's own exception (§28-309.12.3) is narrower and covers "the energy efficiency score of a building with an energy efficiency grade of N", so the broad reading is DOB's, not the code's (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.3 Exception).
Which NYC buildings have to post an energy efficiency grade?
The posting duty follows the benchmarking list. Owners of properties on DOB's Covered Buildings List for benchmarking compliance, as drawn from Department of Finance records, must comply (DOB LL33 FAQs). DOB describes that population as buildings over 25,000 square feet, or multiple buildings on one lot that total 100,000 square feet or more, that appear on the year's NYC Benchmarking Covered Buildings List (DOB Service Notice 11/25/2025).
The statutory definition is a little more detailed. As amended by Local Law 133 of 2016, a "covered building" is one exceeding 25,000 gross square feet per Finance records; two or more buildings on one tax lot, or under one condominium board, that together exceed 100,000 gross square feet; or a city building — the single-building threshold was 50,000 square feet before that amendment (NYC Admin Code §28-309.2 (as amended by LL133/2016)). A building that benchmarks under Local Law 84 gets a grade; one on the list that did not benchmark on time gets an F (DOB LL33 FAQs).
A poor grade is not an excuse — a D posts the same way an A does. The only buildings that escape posting are those graded N: exempt from benchmarking, or a property type that cannot receive a 1–100 ENERGY STAR score (DOB LL33 FAQs; NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.3 Exception).
When the energy grade label comes out and when it must be posted
The cycle has the same three steps every year (DOB LL33 Steps to Compliance; NYC Admin Code §28-309.4):
| May 1 | Submit the year's Local Law 84 benchmarking data — the score on the label comes from this filing (DOB LL33 Steps to Compliance; NYC Admin Code §28-309.4). |
|---|---|
| October 1 | DOB makes the grade available through the Building Energy Efficiency Rating label — the rule fixes this as the date the grade will be available (1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2)). |
| Within 30 days | Post the grade and score near each public entrance. The statute counts 30 days from when the owner obtains the grade (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.3 (LL33/2018)); the rule counts from October 1 — so normally October 31 (1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2)). |
| Until next October 1 | Keep it up. The label stays until October 1 of the following year, when the new one replaces it (DOB LL33 FAQs (May 2021)). |
For 2026 the window is the standard one: labels October 1, posted no later than October 31, 2026 (DOB Service Notice 2/27/2026; 1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2)) — a return to normal after 2025: for the 2025 filing year only, the label window was December 1–31, 2025 (DOB Service Notice 11/25/2025). Every NYC date is on the compliance calendar.
The label carries a one-year lag: the October label shows the previous calendar year's grade, because it comes from the benchmarking report filed that May — DOB's notice for the 2023 window told owners to post the building's 2022 grade (DOB Service Notice 10/2/2023 (Past Service Updates)). The October 2026 label therefore reflects calendar-year 2025 data.
Where the label goes and how to get it
The statute requires a conspicuous location near each public entrance, in the form and manner DOB prescribes (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.3 (LL33/2018)); DOB's FAQs add the specifics: inside or outside, visible to the public, four to six feet above the floor or ground, not defaced or hidden, and one label for each public entrance (DOB LL33 FAQs).
"Public entrance" is not defined in the Administrative Code; DOB uses the Building Code definition, "an entrance that is not a service entrance" (DOB LL33 FAQs; NYC Building Code §1102). A restricted-access entrance still counts; a loading dock, service entrance, or door used only by a single retail store does not (DOB LL33 FAQs).
DOB does not mail the label. The owner or a representative downloads it from the DOB NOW Public Portal (Building Energy Efficiency Rating tab, searched by BBL), signs an attestation that it will be posted, and prints it on letter-size paper in color or grayscale, annually between October 1 and October 31 (DOB LL33 FAQs; DOB Benchmarking page; DOB Service Notice 11/25/2025). The statute requires the label to show the grade and the score it is based on (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.3 (LL33/2018)); this page does not describe any other field on the label, because none was verified against the rule text.
The data also goes online: DOB must publish the information behind each grade and score by May 1 of the following year (N-grade buildings excluded), and posts annual "LL33 Data Disclosure" files on its Energy Grading page — the 2020 file (covering 2019) through the 2025 file (covering 2024) (NYC Admin Code §28-309.12.4 (LL33/2018); DOB Energy Grading page).
What is the penalty for not posting the NYC energy grade?
The rule is direct: failure to annually post the grade and score within 30 days after October 1 "may result in a penalty of $1,250" (1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2)). DOB issues it as a DOB violation of $1,250 per E-Grade violation, paid or challenged through DOB NOW: Safety (DOB LL33 FAQs; 1 RCNY §103-06(l)).
| Amount | $1,250 per violation (1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2); DOB LL33 FAQs) |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Grade and score not posted within 30 days after October 1 (1 RCNY §103-06(l)(2)) |
| Enforcement announced | April 29, 2021 — the date DOB said it would begin issuing failure-to-post violations (the first labels had been due October 31, 2020) (DOB Service Update 4/27/2021; DOB Service Notice 9/2020 (Past Service Updates)) |
| Challenge | In writing within 30 days of the violation's postmark date, with proof such as photographs of timely posting; handled in DOB NOW: Safety (1 RCNY §103-06(m)(2)-(3); DOB Service Update 4/27/2021) |
Two caveats. $1,250 is the figure in DOB's rule and FAQs; we could not read the consolidated Administrative Code to confirm how it classifies a §28-309.12 violation or whether a different statutory maximum attaches, so this page does not characterize the violation class. And the posting violation stands alone: an owner who did not benchmark on time still receives an F label and still has to post it (DOB LL33 FAQs).
Local Law 97's emissions penalties come from a separate law with a separate calculation; to see that exposure for a specific address, the free LL97 fine calculator estimates it.