Circle Park Apartments

How does Circle Park 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. Circle Park Apartments's ENERGY STAR score of 74 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 59% of them and lower than 40%. Its site EUI of 51.2 kBtu/ft² is about 29% below the average of 72.0 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 6.0 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 389,174 sq ft, it is about 89% above the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1982, 11 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 Circle Park Apartments's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 7 Chicago disclosures for Circle Park Apartments, covering report years 2016–2022. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 27 in 2016 to 74 in 2022 (+47 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 100. Site EUI moved from 65.9 kBtu/ft² (2016) to 51.2 kBtu/ft² (2022), a 22% decrease. Reported emissions went from 948 tCO₂e to 2,353 tCO₂e over the same span (up 148%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 74 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 74 means the building performs better than about 74% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 74 falls in band B — above median (70–84). It sits 1 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. Circle Park Apartments's 51.2 kBtu/ft² across 389,174 sq ft works out to about 19.9 billion Btu (5,840 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 127.8 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 4,825,309 kWh of electricity and 34,772 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Circle Park Apartments to report its energy use?

Circle Park 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 2022 disclosure (source record chicago:117398:2022). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.