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William Eckhardt Research Center 
🚨

5640 S ELLIS AVE, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 254382

Attribution: © Google 2024 Image Source (opens in a new tab). Cropped from original.

Building Info

Square Footage
284,391 sqft
Higher than 73% of all buildings
2.0x median
139,707 sqft
1.9x median Laboratory
150,729 sqft
Built
2015
Primary Property Type
Laboratory
Community Area
Hyde Park
Owner
University of Chicago
View All Tagged UChicago Buildings

Note: Owner manually tagged. Logo used under fair use.

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
40.9 kg CO2e / sqft
#9 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
6x median
6.4 kg CO2e / sqft
1.7x median Laboratory
23.5 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
11,638.6 metric tons CO2 eq.
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
Higher than 98% of all buildings
13x median
885.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
2.7x median Laboratory
4,237.4 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
794.6 kBtu / sqft
#10 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#3 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
6x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.7x median Laboratory
461.2 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
508.4 kBtu / sqft
#6 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
6x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
1.7x median Laboratory
299.9 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
0 kBtu
#2 Lowest of Laboratories 🏆
Lower than 97% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
5,818,399.6 kBtu
Median Laboratory
91,419 kBtu
This Building Uses District Heating ❗

Although this building didn't burn any natural gas on site, it's connected to a district heating system, a centralized system for heating multiple buildings. District heating systems can be fully electric, but in Chicago most district heating systems are natural gas powered, meaning this building was most likely still heated with natural gas.

Electricity Use
42,256,906.8 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $1,771,000 for 2022**
#3 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
Higher than 96% of all buildings
11x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
2.6x median Laboratory
16,507,348 kBtu
District Steam Use
49,638,647.4 kBtu

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

District Chilled Water Use
52,691,107.5 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: