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540 West Madison 
🚩

540 W Madison, Chicago IL, 60661 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 101729

Building Info

Square Footage
1,419,333 sqft
Higher than 98% of all buildings
11x median
130,550 sqft
1.6x median Financial Office
883,961 sqft
Built
2004
Primary Property Type
Financial Office
Community Area
Near West Side
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information for 2021

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
13 kg CO2e / sqft
Higher than 92% of all buildings
2.0x median
6.5 kg CO2e / sqft
0.9x median Financial Office
14.8 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
15,899.1 metric tons CO2 eq.
#31 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
18x median
873.9 metric tons CO2 eq.
1.5x median Financial Office
10,867.6 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
255 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 92% of all buildings
2.0x median
126.8 kBtu / sqft
0.9x median Financial Office
291.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
91.6 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 72% of all buildings
1.2x median
73.6 kBtu / sqft
0.9x median Financial Office
104.4 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
1,020,465.6 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $12,000 for 2021**
Lower than 88% of all buildings
1/5 median
5,147,647.2 kBtu
2.0x median Financial Office
510,232.8 kBtu
Electricity Use
110,938,143.3 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $4,650,000 for 2021**
#20 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
30x median
3,656,138.8 kBtu
1.5x median Financial Office
75,899,820.5 kBtu

* Note on Rankings: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2021, 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 (opens in a new tab) for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)

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 (opens in a new tab)). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel (opens in a new tab).

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: