Buildings & Energy

Building energy use is a major contributor to GHG emissions.  GHG emissions from this sector come from direct emissions such as fossil fuels burned on-site for heating or cooking needs—as well as indirect emissions such as fossil fuels burned off-site in order to supply the building with electricity.  Building design plays a large role in determining the future efficiency and comfort of facilities.  Increasing energy efficiency can help reduce GHG emissions and result in significant cost savings for both homes and businesses.

  1. Progress Report: Skokie Sustainability Plan

    In the second quarter of 2023, Village staff worked together towards achieving Skokie's Environmental Sustainability Plan goals. View the highlights, including LED light upgrades, a new electric vehicle, and more. Read on...
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Implementation is for Everyone!

Some actions in this plan will need to be led by the 
Village Board, Village departments, and/or the business community. In addition, there are steps that households and individuals can take to make an impact.   Click below to find out out the what you as a resident can do to help the Village achieve these visionary goals.

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Buildings & Energy Strategies

Below are the specific Buildings & Energy goals outlined in the 2022 Environmental Sustainability Plan. Clicking on one of them will display the list of actions to be incorporated into the Village's workplans. They are broken down into completed, in-progress, and future and progress is updated quarterly.

  1. Improve total community-wide residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial building energy efficiency by 15% by 2030. 

In-Progress Actions

  • Community Development shall review for adoption of the most recent International Energy Conservation Code as well as the International Green Building Code.
  • Collaborate with ComEd, Nicor, and others to educate residents, businesses, and institutions on ways to lower energy costs.
  • Through SEAC, ComEd, Nicor, and community partners like Go Green Skokie, create a residential energy efficiency challenge promoting and expanding residential and multi-family energy efficiency audit and upgrade program similar to ComEd's "Home Energy assessments." Collect communication materials to share with residents. Develop a plan to drive residents to action; identify other community groups that can build capacity for effective outreach; publicly recognize annual challenge "winners" with successful energy reduction achievements. Track annual progress; combine efforts with increased renewable energy purchases and installations. Goal: 220 households annually.
  • Establish and implement an energy and water benchmarking and annual reporting program for commercial, institutional, industrial, and multi-family buildings by 2025. Support improved access to utility data for building owners and managers seeking to improve energy and water performance.
  • Explore and implement a mechanism for expedited zoning and building code review process for projects meeting or exceeding the goals of this section to support and provide additional incentive for sustainable building projects.
  • Encourage use of current sustainability and energy-efficiency certification programs (e.g. LEED Platinum, Passive House (PHIUS), Green Globes, Living Building Challenge, American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030, and Enterprise Green Communities) and adopt an ordinance by 2025 to have commercial, institutional, industrial, and multi-family developers participate in a certification program.

Future Actions

  • Promote and offer incentives for improving energy efficiency (e.g. Nicor Gas, ComEd, Cook County Property-Assessed Clean Energy financing program, insulation, energy-efficient windows, electric heat pumps) in substantially-renovated and newly-constructed properties. New construction incentives shall support measures for projects that exceed code requirements.
  • Work with other public agencies including Park District and School districts to support energy efficiency programs, geothermal energy and solar energy installation. Goal: Achieving energy efficiency and renewable energy installation at public facilities equal to or greater than goals established in this plan by 2030.
  1. Increase adoption of high-performance building construction technology, achieving 0.5% Net Zero households, commercial, and institutional properties community-wide by 2030.
  1. Achieve 5% residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional building "fuel switching" from on-site fossil fuel combustion to electrification by 2030.
  1. Increase on-site renewable energy from 0.12% to 2% of residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional electric use by 2030.
  1. Increase residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional green electricity purchasing (wind and solar source) community-wide to 15% by 2030.
  1. Increase resilience of community-wide building stock to the impacts of climate change (increased flood control and green infrastructure, etc).
  1. Improve total municipal building energy efficiency by 15% by 2030 (electricity and natural gas).
  1. Achieve 15% municipal building thermal “fuel switching" from on-site fossil fuel combustion to electrification by 2030.
  1. Increase on-site renewable energy to 7.5% of Village operations electricity consumption by 2030.

Questions about the Buildings and Energy sector? Please send an email to Sustainability@skokie.org.