Chicago ranks as greenest place to work in country

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago once again ranks as the greenest place to work in the country.

For the third year in a row, Chicago is the nation's leader in energy-efficient office buildings, according to the 2019 National Green building Adoption Index published by CBRE Group Inc., Maastricht University and the University of Guelph

The city outranked San Francisco, Atlanta, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Los Angeles.

Researchers analyzed green-certified office space across the nation's 30 largest office markets and found the highest in the index's history at 42.2 percent from 41 percent from 2018.

Green office buildings hold either an EPA ENERGY STAR label, USGBC LEED certification, or both.

"With a mix of old and new buildings, Chicago is a wonderful example of how cities can implement green building practices in both new construction and retrofits," said Spencer Levy, chairman of Americas Research for CBRE and senior economic advisor. "These efforts not only benefit the city and the environment, but also deliver real costs savings to owners and investors."

According to the report, 71.1 percent of the office buildings, in Chicago, over 167 million square feet, are market-certified green. Twenty percent of all Chicago office buildings are green for a total of 1,411 buildings.