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Merchandise Mart 
🚩

222 Merchandise Mart Plz, Chicago IL, 60654 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 103656

Attribution: Image Source (opens in a new tab). Cropped from original.

Building Info

Square Footage
4,259,185 sqft
#6 Largest
#2 Largest of Offices
30x median
139,707 sqft
16x median Office
259,000 sqft
Built
1930
Primary Property Type
Office
Community Area
Near North Side
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
4.7 kg CO2e / sqft
Lower than 80% of all buildings
0.7x median
6.4 kg CO2e / sqft
0.7x median Office
6.9 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
19,236.1 metric tons CO2 eq.
#15 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#5 Highest of Offices 🚨
22x median
885.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
10x median Office
1,832.2 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
95.5 kBtu / sqft
Lower than 81% of all buildings
0.7x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
0.7x median Office
142.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
53.2 kBtu / sqft
Lower than 83% of all buildings
0.7x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
0.8x median Office
66.3 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
87,808,385.1 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $1,047,000 for 2022**
#25 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#1 Highest of Offices 🚨
15x median
5,818,399.6 kBtu
33x median Office
2,672,800.1 kBtu
Electricity Use
96,458,630.6 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $4,043,000 for 2022**
#24 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#10 Highest of Offices 🚨
25x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
9x median Office
10,340,763.6 kBtu
District Chilled Water Use
35,431,011.8 kBtu

Most buildings don't use district chilling, so we don't currently have comparison data.

* 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 (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: