Casals

How does Casals compare with other K-12 school buildings in Chicago?

The latest disclosures cover 543 K-12 school buildings in Chicago, out of 3,852 buildings citywide. Casals's ENERGY STAR score of 8 compares with an average of 45 across the 365 that report a score; it scores higher than 6% of them and lower than 93%. Its site EUI of 100.3 kBtu/ft² is about 38% above the average of 72.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 9.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 47% above the group average of 6.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 66,550 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 121,824 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1989, 46 years later than the group's average year built (1943). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 6,548 K-12 school buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 64 and a site EUI of 52.7 kBtu/ft².

How has Casals's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 9 Chicago disclosures for Casals, covering report years 2015–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 22 in 2015 to 8 in 2023 (-14 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 34. Site EUI moved from 94.3 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 100.3 kBtu/ft² (2023), an 6% increase. Reported emissions went from 806 tCO₂e to 605 tCO₂e over the same span (down 25%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 8 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 8 means the building performs better than about 8% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 8 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 67 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. Casals's 100.3 kBtu/ft² across 66,550 sq ft works out to about 6.7 billion Btu (1,956 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 181.2 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 845,533 kWh of electricity and 37,898 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Casals to report its energy use?

Casals 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:251459:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.