Ellington

How does Ellington 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. Ellington's ENERGY STAR score of 12 compares with an average of 45 across the 365 that report a score; it scores higher than 10% of them and lower than 89%. Its site EUI of 84.7 kBtu/ft² is about 17% 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 8.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 35% above the group average of 6.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 112,380 sq ft, it is roughly in line with the average floor area of 121,824 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2005, 62 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 Ellington's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 9 Chicago disclosures for Ellington, covering report years 2015–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 7 in 2015 to 12 in 2023 (+5 points); its best year on file was 2018, at 16. Site EUI moved from 110.4 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 84.7 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 23% decrease. Reported emissions went from 1,514 tCO₂e to 946 tCO₂e over the same span (down 38%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 12 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 12 means the building performs better than about 12% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 12 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 63 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. Ellington's 84.7 kBtu/ft² across 112,380 sq ft works out to about 9.5 billion Btu (2,790 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 167.9 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,485,294 kWh of electricity and 44,526 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Ellington to report its energy use?

Ellington 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:251656:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.