817 Seward St

How does 817 Seward St compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Evanston?

The latest disclosures cover 172 multifamily housing buildings in Evanston, out of 366 buildings citywide. 817 Seward St's ENERGY STAR score of 39 compares with an average of 71 across the 149 that report a score; it scores higher than 13% of them and lower than 85%. Its site EUI of 96.1 kBtu/ft² is about 27% above the average of 75.6 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 6.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 5.7 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 36,217 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 80,265 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1959, 10 years later than the group's average year built (1949). 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 39 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 39 means the building performs better than about 39% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 39 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 36 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Evanston, 45% 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. 817 Seward St's 96.1 kBtu/ft² across 36,217 sq ft works out to about 3.5 billion Btu (1,020 MWh-equivalent) in 2019. Its source EUI of 117.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 101,261 kWh of electricity, 31,348 therms of natural gas and 2,164 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 817 Seward St to report its energy use?

817 Seward St reports under the Healthy Buildings Ordinance (1-O-25), the legal basis of Evanston's Building Energy and Water Use Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2019 disclosure (source record evanston:105354:2019). Evanston's Healthy Buildings Ordinance (1-O-25) requires buildings of 20,000 sq ft or more to benchmark and report energy and water use by June 30 each year; the city says non-compliance fines of $250 per month begin January 1, 2027.