Alpha Tower Apartments

How does Alpha Tower Apartments compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Chicago?

The latest disclosures cover 1,515 multifamily housing buildings in Chicago, out of 3,852 buildings citywide. Alpha Tower Apartments's ENERGY STAR score of 19 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 9% of them and lower than 90%. Its site EUI of 92.5 kBtu/ft² is about 28% above the average of 72.0 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 7.6 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 31% above the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 136,957 sq ft, it is about 34% below the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1983, 12 years later than the group's average year built (1971). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has Alpha Tower Apartments's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 8 Chicago disclosures for Alpha Tower Apartments, covering report years 2016–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 5 in 2016 to 19 in 2023 (+14 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 19. Site EUI moved from 126.3 kBtu/ft² (2016) to 92.5 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 27% decrease. Reported emissions went from 1,542 tCO₂e to 1,037 tCO₂e over the same span (down 33%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 19 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 19 means the building performs better than about 19% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 19 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 56 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Chicago, 35% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. Alpha Tower Apartments's 92.5 kBtu/ft² across 136,957 sq ft works out to about 12.7 billion Btu (3,713 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 150.8 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,229,623 kWh of electricity and 84,770 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Alpha Tower Apartments to report its energy use?

Alpha Tower Apartments reports under the Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance, the legal basis of the Chicago Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2023 disclosure (source record chicago:117248:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.