The Park District of Oak Park’s Community Recreation Center was billed from day one as a game-changer and an environmental feat as well. The planned “Net-Zero” building would have solar panels, and superior insulation and appliance efficiency and other features that would offset the energy consumed in operating the facility. It won a “Planet Positive Award.”
I wondered whether this building would be able to live up to the far-in-advance green label given that its design, with its expansive curtain glass walls, looked somewhat energy demanding to me. Now with more than a half year of energy-performance data to look at, we have some inkling of where it is heading. The large-screen display in the lobby near the Madison Street entrance shows daily and monthly readings of energy use and production, and Chris Lindgren, superintendent of parks and planning, confirmed via email that the numbers displayed were an updated reading from their system software. A reassuring piece is that the solar panels seem to be working well and the read-out shows that even the January sun apparently contributed a lot of watts. But that is not the whole story.
During the nine-month period from June 2023 through February 2024, the net energy consumed was apparently some 180,000 kWh, about 20,000 kWh a month. By virtue of comparison, the average per capita consumption of electricity worldwide for all sectors, including residences, stores, schools, offices and government is 267 kWh a month (source: Energy Information Agency, 2023). In other words, the CRC electricity use is similar to that of 75 humans, and this is after the inputs from solar power are accounted for.
If this had been an unusually cold winter, one might surmise that future, milder winters would bring us closer to the original “Net-Zero” goal. Unfortunately, cold weather does not explain the results. On the contrary, this winter has been 6.8 degrees F above normal and is the fifth warmest on record (NOAA data for O’Hare Airport station through March 2, 2024).
The CRC is not yet a year old and there were some understandable kinks in operations to work out, but the challenge seems to be mainly on the consumption side. Predictably, the HVAC (heating, ventilation and AC) has been an important component of energy use. On the other hand, the electric vehicle plug-in station is not using much, nor is the energy-efficient lighting.
A closer look at the energy-use data, however, shows that there is another category, basically none of the above. I would venture that an important part of this category is an area that in the late afternoon is jam-packed, populated with the after-school crowd that Paul Turner amusingly describes in his Feb. 28 piece in the WJ Viewpoints section. In his essay, Turner describes how a surplus of young energy took the elevator “out of commission for a few weeks after the kids repeatedly jumped up and down while riding it.”
But it is a room on the ground-floor that really packs the late-afternoon visitors. It is the Esports Lounge, which offers “Playstations, Nintendo, Xbox,” and the like, and the games go on after the official student hours are over and the sun’s rays are disappearing over the rooftop panels. I didn’t see the room that offers the homework help, and it may have been similarly populated, but doubtless the activities there consume a lower amount of electricity.
With the help of a staff member, I did find the treadmills that generate electricity. Manufactured by Sports Art they are offered with the description, “benefiting the planet and providing a new layer of meaningfulness to breaking a sweat.” Both treadmills were not in use when I saw them, but my guide assured me they are easy to use and fun.
Looking at them, a small light bulb went off. What if we challenged the Esports Lounge crowd to balance their input with their output, e.g. some minutes on the treadmill generating muscle-powered electricity could be the ticket for some minutes in the Esports lounge? The human watts would probably be a drop in the bucket but at least the users would learn something about energy production and give their brain cells a boost.
Of course, there is also the broader question of what are we learning as a community about building construction and environmental labeling? The resources of $2.2 million from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation and from the Oak Park sustainability fund were to “ensure” a net-zero result, but the current energy read-out reminds us that while the energy use is lower than most buildings, the net-zero guarantee did not pan out and probably never will. New buildings are expensive to construct and to run, and practically speaking the environmental cost in this region is still well above zero.
Susan Subak is a resident of Oak Park and the author of “The Five-Ton Life: Carbon, America and the Culture that May Save Us.
