Museum of Science and Industry

5700 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 102460

Building Info

Square Footage: 1,211,750 sqft
#1 Largest of Museums
Higher than 94% of all buildings
4.1x median
296,415 sqft
3.8x median Museum
316,080 sqft
Built: 1893
Primary Property Type: Museum
Community Area: Hyde Park
Chicago Energy Rating: 4.0 / 4
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information

For 2020

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 4.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
#1 Lowest of Museums 🏆
Lower than 96% of all buildings
0.6x median
7.7 kg CO₂e / sqft
0.6x median Museum
7.6 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 5,371.7 metric tons CO₂ eq.
Higher than 86% of all buildings
2.6x median
2,063.4 metric tons CO₂ eq.
2.4x median Museum
2,265 metric tons CO₂ eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity: 81.1 kBtu / sqft
#1 Lowest of Museums 🏆
Lower than 96% of all buildings
0.6x median
143.1 kBtu / sqft
0.6x median Museum
138.4 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 38.8 kBtu / sqft
#1 Lowest of Museums 🏆
Lower than 97% of all buildings
1/2 median
81.9 kBtu / sqft
0.6x median Museum
68.6 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use: 19,061,558.7 kBtu
Higher than 72% of all buildings
1.5x median
12,367,856.3 kBtu
1.3x median Museum
14,138,140.9 kBtu
Electricity Use: 27,931,407 kBtu
Higher than 87% of all buildings
3.2x median
8,755,592 kBtu
2.5x median Museum
11,376,797.4 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

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: