Harold Washington Library

400 S State St, Chicago IL, 60605 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 157964

Building Info

Square Footage: 756,640 sqft
#1 Largest of Librarys
Higher than 93% of all buildings
5x median
139,707 sqft
6x median Library
125,828 sqft
Built: 1991
Primary Property Type: Library
Community Area: Loop
Chicago Energy Rating: 1.0 / 4
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 11.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
Higher than 91% of all buildings
1.8x median
6.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
0.9x median Library
12.2 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 8,609.8 metric tons CO₂ eq.
#1 Highest of Librarys 🚨
Higher than 97% of all buildings
10x median
885.8 metric tons CO₂ eq.
6x median Library
1,385.2 metric tons CO₂ eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity: 241.9 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 91% of all buildings
1.8x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.0x median Library
245.3 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 86.4 kBtu / sqft
#2 Lowest of Librarys 🏆
Higher than 61% of all buildings
1.1x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
0.7x median Library
121.9 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use: 0 kBtu
#1 Lowest of Librarys 🏆
Lower than 97% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
5,818,399.6 kBtu
Median Library
387,594.5 kBtu
This Building Didn't Burn Any Natural Gas! 🎉
This building burned no natural gas on-site and isn't connected to a district heating system, meaning it's fully electric! View Chicago's Biggest Gas Free Buildings .
Electricity Use: 65,367,156.3 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $2,740,000 for 2022**
#1 Highest of Librarys 🚨
Higher than 98% of all buildings
17x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
12x median Library
5,415,153.3 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 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: