Energy performance of LEED-certified buildings from 2015 Chicago benchmarking data

The City of Chicago recently publicized energy usage data for 1521 commercial properties with floor area 50000 ft2 (4650 m2) or greater for the year 2015. We have cross-referenced the Chicago benchmarking data with the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED project database to identify 132 Chicago properties that were LEED-certified in programs expected to reduce whole building energy use. The numbers of LEED-certified buildings are sufficient for Offices, K-12 Schools, and Multifamily Housing to learn whether these buildings use less energy than do similar conventional buildings in Chicago. For all three building types we find LEED-certified buildings use no less source energy than similar buildings that are not LEED-certified. Further, we find that LEED-certified schools use 17% more source energy than do other schools. For all three building types we find that LEED-certified buildings use roughly 10% less energy on site than comparable conventional buildings. This does not translate into source energy savings because LEED-certified buildings use relatively more electric energy. Finally, when LEED-certified buildings are compared with other newer buildings we find their source energy consumption to be similar. We believe this is the first such study of energy performance for LEED-certified schools.