California Gardens Rehabilitation Center

How does California Gardens Rehabilitation Center compare with other senior living community buildings in Chicago?

The latest disclosures cover 58 senior living community buildings in Chicago, out of 3,852 buildings citywide. California Gardens Rehabilitation Center's ENERGY STAR score of 21 compares with an average of 47 across the 55 that report a score; it scores higher than 18% of them and lower than 80%. Its site EUI of 199.7 kBtu/ft² is about twice the average of 103.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 15.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 80% above the group average of 8.4 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 103,076 sq ft, it is about 17% below the average floor area of 123,934 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1977, 17 years earlier than the group's average year built (1994). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 1,181 senior living community buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 71 and a site EUI of 73.6 kBtu/ft².

How has California Gardens Rehabilitation Center's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 6 Chicago disclosures for California Gardens Rehabilitation Center, covering report years 2017–2022. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 12 in 2017 to 21 in 2022 (+9 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 21. Site EUI moved from 201.7 kBtu/ft² (2017) to 199.7 kBtu/ft² (2022), a 1% decrease. Reported emissions went from 1,344 tCO₂e to 1,096 tCO₂e over the same span (down 18%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 21 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 21 means the building performs better than about 21% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 21 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 54 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. California Gardens Rehabilitation Center's 199.7 kBtu/ft² across 103,076 sq ft works out to about 20.6 billion Btu (6,033 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 308.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,206,992 kWh of electricity and 104,287 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires California Gardens Rehabilitation Center to report its energy use?

California Gardens Rehabilitation Center 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 2022 disclosure (source record chicago:127990:2022). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.