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Searle Chemistry Laboratory 
🚩

5735 S Ellis Ave, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 134735

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

Building Info

Square Footage
85,570 sqft
Lower than 70% of all buildings
0.7x median
130,550 sqft
0.6x median Laboratory
150,729 sqft
Built
2009
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 2021

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
47.4 kg CO2e / sqft
#12 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
7x median
6.5 kg CO2e / sqft
1.6x median Laboratory
29.2 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
4,051.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
Higher than 91% of all buildings
4.6x median
873.9 metric tons CO2 eq.
1.0x median Laboratory
4,051.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
879.5 kBtu / sqft
#12 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
7x median
126.8 kBtu / sqft
1.5x median Laboratory
574.5 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
588.3 kBtu / sqft
#11 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#2 Highest of Laboratories 🚨
8x median
73.6 kBtu / sqft
1.9x median Laboratory
311.4 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
66,036 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $800 for 2021**
Lower than 92% of all buildings
1/78 median
5,147,647.2 kBtu
0.7x median Laboratory
90,492 kBtu
Electricity Use
12,682,257.3 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $532,000 for 2021**
Higher than 85% of all buildings
3.5x median
3,656,138.8 kBtu
0.8x median Laboratory
16,392,312.5 kBtu
District Steam Use
18,677,659 kBtu

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

District Chilled Water Use
18,913,201.4 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 2021, 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: