Ninos Heroes

How does Ninos Heroes 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. Ninos Heroes's ENERGY STAR score of 17 compares with an average of 45 across the 365 that report a score; it scores higher than 16% of them and lower than 83%. Its site EUI of 80.4 kBtu/ft² is about 11% 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 7.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 19% above the group average of 6.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 73,518 sq ft, it is about 40% below the average floor area of 121,824 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1981, 38 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 Ninos Heroes's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 9 Chicago disclosures for Ninos Heroes, covering report years 2015–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 21 in 2015 to 17 in 2023 (-4 points); its best year on file was 2016, at 30. Site EUI moved from 81.8 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 80.4 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 2% decrease. Reported emissions went from 772 tCO₂e to 541 tCO₂e over the same span (down 30%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 17 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 17 means the building performs better than about 17% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 17 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 58 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. Ninos Heroes's 80.4 kBtu/ft² across 73,518 sq ft works out to about 5.9 billion Btu (1,732 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 146.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 765,873 kWh of electricity and 32,966 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Ninos Heroes to report its energy use?

Ninos Heroes 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:161305:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.