Northpoint

How does Northpoint 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. Northpoint's ENERGY STAR score of 92 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 84% of them and lower than 15%. Its site EUI of 61.1 kBtu/ft² is about 15% 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 4.5 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 22% below the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 298,093 sq ft, it is about 45% above the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1921, 50 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 92 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 92 means the building performs better than about 92% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 92 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. Northpoint's 61.1 kBtu/ft² across 298,093 sq ft works out to about 18.2 billion Btu (5,338 MWh-equivalent) in 2017. Its source EUI of 84.7 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 859,989 kWh of electricity and 152,744 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Northpoint to report its energy use?

Northpoint 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 2017 disclosure (source record chicago:160411:2017). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.