Heritage Woods of Chicago

How does Heritage Woods of Chicago compare with other senior living community buildings in Chicago?

The latest disclosures cover 58 senior living community buildings in Chicago, out of 3,852 buildings citywide. Heritage Woods of Chicago's ENERGY STAR score of 25 compares with an average of 47 across the 55 that report a score; it scores higher than 25% of them and lower than 73%. Its site EUI of 102.1 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 103.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 8.3 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 8.4 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 73,518 sq ft, it is about 41% below the average floor area of 123,934 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2000, 6 years later than the group's average year built (1994). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 1,181 senior living community buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 71 and a site EUI of 73.6 kBtu/ft².

How has Heritage Woods of Chicago's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 8 Chicago disclosures for Heritage Woods of Chicago, covering report years 2016–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 17 in 2016 to 25 in 2023 (+8 points); its best year on file was 2021, at 31. Site EUI moved from 103.6 kBtu/ft² (2016) to 102.1 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 1% decrease. Reported emissions went from 833 tCO₂e to 608 tCO₂e over the same span (down 27%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 25 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 25 means the building performs better than about 25% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 25 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 50 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. Heritage Woods of Chicago's 102.1 kBtu/ft² across 73,518 sq ft works out to about 7.5 billion Btu (2,200 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 164.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 704,999 kWh of electricity and 51,041 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Heritage Woods of Chicago to report its energy use?

Heritage Woods of Chicago 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:252268:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.