The Field Museum
🚩

1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago IL, 60605 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 103638

Building Info

Square Footage: 1,280,537 sqft
Higher than 97% of all buildings
9x median
139,707 sqft
2.3x median Mixed Use Property
545,428.5 sqft
Built: 1921
Primary Property Type: Mixed Use Property
Community Area: Near South Side
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 10.3 kg CO₂e / sqft
Higher than 88% of all buildings
1.6x median
6.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
1.3x median Mixed Use Property
8.1 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 13,156.8 tons CO₂e
#39 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
15x median
885.8 tons CO₂e
4.5x median Mixed Use Property
2,913.6 tons CO₂e

Years Reported 8/9 B

2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

Energy Breakdown

Natural Gas Use: 93,262,091.8 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $1,112,000 for 2022**
#22 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#1 Highest of Mixed Use Properties 🚨
16x median
5,818,399.6 kBtu
7x median Mixed Use Property
13,083,087.5 kBtu
Electricity Use: 62,280,357.3 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $2,610,000 for 2022**
Higher than 98% of all buildings
16x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
4.1x median Mixed Use Property
15,085,130.5 kBtu

Energy Mix

Total Energy Use: 155,542,449 kBTU

View Extra Technical Info

Source Energy Usage Intensity: 212.8 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 87% of all buildings
1.6x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.3x median Mixed Use Property
167.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 121.6 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 88% of all buildings
1.6x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
1.5x median Mixed Use Property
80.2 kBtu / sqft

Full Historical Data Table

Year	Floor Area sqft	GHG Intensity kg CO₂e / sqft	GHG Emissions metric tons CO₂e	Source EUI kBTU / sqft	Electricity Use kBTU	Natural Gas Use kBTU
2014	1,300,557	13.27	17,257	221.0	64,959,229	80,104,703
2015	1,300,557	13.8	17,902	229.5	67,035,076	84,273,408
2016	1,300,557	13.0	16,862	230.7	66,879,792	86,143,492
2017	1,300,557	13.6	17,649.9	240.5	70,703,372	86,972,188
2018	1,298,518	12.7	16,507.2	225.7	68,607,550	96,548,700
2020	1,280,537	9.9	12,646.7	183.4	53,837,201	79,910,087
2021	1,280,537	9.7	12,416.7	190.7	58,934,834	75,635,359
2022	1,280,537	10.3	13,156.8	212.8	62,280,357	93,262,091

* Note on Rankings: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2022, which only applies to buildings over 50,000 square feet.

** Note on Bill Estimates: Estimates for gas and electric bills are based on average electric and gas retail prices for Chicago in 2021 and are rounded. We expect large buildings would negotiate lower rates with utilities, but these estimates serve as an upper bound of cost and help understand the volume of energy a building is used by comparing it to your own energy bills! See our Chicago Gas & Electric Costs Source for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data

What Should We Do About This?

Practically every building has room to improve with energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, switching to ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and more, but for any buildings with large natural gas use, we recommend one thing: electrify!

In other words, buildings should look to move all on-site uses of fossil fuels (including space heating, water heating, and cooking) to electrically powered systems like industrial grade heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and induction stoves. With Illinois' current electric supply, just using the same amount of energy from electricity, rather than natural gas (aka methane) will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is because Illinois' grid in 2020 was already 67% carbon-free (see Illinois - Power | DecarbMyState ). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel .

You can help make this a reality by talking to building owners and letting them know that a building's emissions are important to you, and that you want to see their building become fully electric and stop emitting greenhouse gases. Particularly for buildings you have a financial stake in (like your university, work, condo building, or apartment building) your voice in concert with your fellow building users can have a huge impact.

Additional Resources

See some additional resources on improving energy efficiency and understanding this data:

The Field Museum 🚩