Cornerstone Apartments

How does Cornerstone 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. Cornerstone Apartments's ENERGY STAR score of 57 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 38% of them and lower than 60%. Its site EUI of 79.6 kBtu/ft² is about 11% 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 5.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 71,864 sq ft, it is about 65% below the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2014, 43 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 Cornerstone Apartments's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 8 Chicago disclosures for Cornerstone Apartments, covering report years 2016–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 75 in 2016 to 57 in 2023 (-18 points); its best year on file was 2017, at 98. Site EUI moved from 72.1 kBtu/ft² (2016) to 79.6 kBtu/ft² (2023), an 10% increase. Reported emissions went from 362 tCO₂e to 392 tCO₂e over the same span (up 8%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 57 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 57 means the building performs better than about 57% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 57 falls in band C — below median (55–69). It sits 18 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. Cornerstone Apartments's 79.6 kBtu/ft² across 71,864 sq ft works out to about 5.7 billion Btu (1,676 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 108.2 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 295,791 kWh of electricity, 47,136 therms of natural gas and 7,706 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Cornerstone Apartments to report its energy use?

Cornerstone 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:175181:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.