Harold Washington Apartments

How does Harold Washington 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. Harold Washington Apartments's ENERGY STAR score of 93 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 85% of them and lower than 13%. Its site EUI of 53.7 kBtu/ft² is about 25% 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 5.7 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 195,630 sq ft, it is roughly in line with the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1928, 43 years earlier 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 Harold Washington Apartments's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 Chicago disclosures for Harold Washington Apartments, covering report years 2020–2022. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 94 in 2020 to 93 in 2022 (-1 points); its best year on file was 2020, at 94. Site EUI moved from 51.7 kBtu/ft² (2020) to 53.7 kBtu/ft² (2022), an 4% increase. Reported emissions went from 276 tCO₂e to 247 tCO₂e over the same span (down 11%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 93 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 93 means the building performs better than about 93% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 93 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). Scores of 75 or higher meet the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification; certification itself is a separate, verified application that the disclosure does not record. 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. Harold Washington Apartments's 53.7 kBtu/ft² across 195,630 sq ft works out to about 10.5 billion Btu (3,079 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 119.2 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 457,633 kWh of electricity and 7,775 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Harold Washington Apartments to report its energy use?

Harold Washington 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:252291:2022). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.