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Energy: Commercial & Industrial Building Energy Use

 

How to use this interactive graph:

  • Use the arrows in the bottom bar of the graph to see more graphs.
  • Hover over the graph to reveal more details. If you’re on a mobile device, hold your finger on the graph.
  • Right click or press on the graph and select “Show as a table” to see a table with all the data.
  • Press the icon in the bottom bar of the graph that looks like an arrow coming out of a box to share the graph on social media or copy its URL.
  • Press the icon in the bottom bar that looks like a double-pointed arrow to view the graph full-screen. 

Why is this a Climate Smart indicator? 

  • Natural gas usage in buildings accounts for 18% of San Jose’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the 2024 communitywide inventory.

  • This is why one of the four key strategies in the 2025 Climate Smart Plan Update is to switch our appliances from fossil fuel to electric.

  • Burning natural gas for water and space heating, on-site electricity generation, manufacturing, and other processes generates carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Natural gas systems also leak methane during production, storage, and distribution. Methane is over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, making it a particularly urgent target for reduction. We must reduce, and eventually eliminate, natural gas use in our buildings to address climate change.

What is the City doing to make progress on this indicator? 

Completed
In Progress / Ongoing
Planned

ABOUT THE DATA

Sources

Even though this strategy tracks and sets goals only for commercial and industrial natural gas use, this dashboard page includes electricity use as an additional indicator of progress. Electricity use data can be viewed in the interactive graphs above.

Data on natural gas use in San José is provided by PG&E. Electricity use data is provided by both PG&E and San José Clean Energy. Data represents total citywide natural gas and electricity use by both commercial and industrial customers for a given calendar year. Natural gas use by institutional customers is not included.

Data on commercial and industrial building square footage come from the Santa Clara County Tax Assessor’s Office.

Energy use intensity (EUI) is calculated by dividing total citywide commercial and industrial natural gas and electricity use by total citywide square footage of commercial and industrial building space for a given year.

Limitations

The County Tax Assessor dataset is missing some needed data for a small percentage of properties. These properties were excluded from analyses.

Commercial energy use may have been unusually low in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders.

Last updated

May 2026