Sor Juana

How does Sor Juana 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. Sor Juana's ENERGY STAR score of 77 compares with an average of 45 across the 365 that report a score; it scores higher than 88% of them and lower than 11%. Its site EUI of 53.2 kBtu/ft² is about 27% below the average of 72.7 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 4.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 29% below the group average of 6.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 169,086 sq ft, it is about 39% above the average floor area of 121,824 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1956, 13 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 77 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 77 means the building performs better than about 77% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 77 falls in band B — above median (70–84). 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. Sor Juana's 53.2 kBtu/ft² across 169,086 sq ft works out to about 9 billion Btu (2,636 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 88.5 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 923,758 kWh of electricity and 58,382 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Sor Juana to report its energy use?

Sor Juana 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:257193:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.