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540 W Madison Ave 
🚩

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
#2 Largest of Financial Offices
Higher than 95% of all buildings
4.8x median
296,415 sqft
3.1x median Financial Office
464,924.5 sqft
Built
2004
Primary Property Type
Financial Office
Community Area
Near West Side
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information

For 2020

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
13.4 kg CO2e / sqft
Higher than 84% of all buildings
1.7x median
7.7 kg CO2e / sqft
1.4x median Financial Office
9.7 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
16,431.1 metric tons CO2 eq.
#35 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#1 Highest of Financial Offices 🚨
8x median
2,063.4 metric tons CO2 eq.
2.4x median Financial Office
6,874.6 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
241.2 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 83% of all buildings
1.7x median
143.1 kBtu / sqft
1.4x median Financial Office
174.8 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
86.5 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 56% of all buildings
1.1x median
81.9 kBtu / sqft
1.2x median Financial Office
70.6 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
689,248.9 kBtu
#1 Lowest of Financial Offices 🏆
Lower than 95% of all buildings
1/18 median
12,367,856.3 kBtu
0.8x median Financial Office
811,300 kBtu
Electricity Use
105,046,453.1 kBtu
#23 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#1 Highest of Financial Offices 🚨
12x median
8,755,592 kBtu
2.8x median Financial Office
37,928,063.9 kBtu

* Important Note: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2020 with emissions greater than 1,000 metric tons.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data Covered Buildings (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: