A multi-year effort by Mercy Housing to provide energy-efficient housing for families across northern Illinois resulted in the organization receiving a Premier Partner Award from Multi-Family Energy Services (MFES), a collaboration between North Shore Gas, Peoples Gas, ComEd and Nicor Gas that helps families living in multi-family communities, along with property owners, access energy efficiency upgrades that can lower energy use and costs.
Mercy Housing is a national nonprofit organization that develops, preserves, and manages affordable, program-enriched housing for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. From 2022 to 2025, Mercy Housing worked with northern Illinois’ energy companies to install energy-efficient appliances and equipment in over 2,000 affordable-housing units that help thousands of residents of Mercy Housing’s properties save money and energy. These improvements earned Mercy Housing more than $1.5 million in incentives to help offset installation costs. These savings, in turn, help lower costs for residents.
Mercy Housing’s efficiency efforts also have environmental benefits, with total energy savings of more than 417,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) and over 48,000 therms. Together, these energy savings help prevent nearly 1.4 million pounds of carbon emissions from going into the air, which is the environmental equivalent of planting nearly 650 acres of trees or removing 150 cars from the road each year.
In noting that the reduction in consumed energy at the properties saved nearly $650,000, Mark Angelini, Regional President of Mercy Housing, added, “The cost savings at our properties were channeled to fund programs serving the residents living there. We are a mission-driven organization focused on providing wrap-around services to our residents. This is a wonderful example of how ‘more margin’ enabled us to provide ‘more mission.’”
The North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas energy efficiency programs collectively contributed nearly $523,000 in incentives, which also supported the installation of energy-efficient plumbing equipment as well as air sealing buildings, and the installation of door , weatherstripping and sealing tape. Since its inception in 2011, the North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas Energy Efficiency Programs have helped residential, business and public sector natural gas customers save $168 million therms and provided more than $196 million in rebates and energy-saving incentives.
“The North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas Energy Efficiency programs are excited to celebrate Mercy Housing’s success in building more efficient and comfortable environments for the benefit of their residents,” said Christina Frank, director for energy efficiency and C&I customer strategy for North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas. “These efforts throughout the years are a testament to Mercy Housing’s commitment to sustainability. We look forward to continuing a partnership that promotes sustainability and saves money for our customers and community.”
These projects are the latest examples of North Shore Gas and Peoples Gas collaborating to support Illinois’ clean energy goals, including growing access to programs that help families and businesses manage their energy use while supporting a lower carbon future.