Water Tower Place
🚨

845 N Michigan Ave, Chicago IL, 60611 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 103712

Building Info

Square Footage: 2,984,641 sqft
#11 Largest
#1 Largest of Mixed Use Properties
21x median
139,707 sqft
5x median Mixed Use Property
545,428.5 sqft
Built: 1976
Primary Property Type: Mixed Use Property
Community Area: Near North Side
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 8.7 kg CO₂e / sqft
Higher than 80% of all buildings
1.4x median
6.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
1.1x median Mixed Use Property
8.1 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 22,500.7 metric tons CO₂ eq.
#10 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#1 Highest of Mixed Use Properties 🚨
25x median
885.8 metric tons CO₂ eq.
8x median Mixed Use Property
2,913.6 metric tons CO₂ eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity: 182.8 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 81% of all buildings
1.4x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.1x median Mixed Use Property
167.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 85.3 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 59% of all buildings
1.1x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
1.1x median Mixed Use Property
80.2 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use: 82,476,254 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $983,000 for 2022**
#32 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#2 Highest of Mixed Use Properties 🚨
14x median
5,818,399.6 kBtu
6x median Mixed Use Property
13,083,087.5 kBtu
Electricity Use: 137,570,616.3 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $5,766,000 for 2022**
#12 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#2 Highest of Mixed Use Properties 🚨
36x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
9x median Mixed Use Property
15,085,130.5 kBtu

Historical Data

Year	Floor Area sqft	GHG Intensity kg CO₂e / sqft	Source EUI kBtu / sqft	Electricity Use kBtu	Natural Gas Use kBtu
2015	2,581,144	16.4	263.7	190,714,422	77,903,178
2016	2,581,144	14.3	247.5	177,583,272	77,375,637
2017	2,581,144	13.0	225.8	159,466,883	78,295,682
2018	2,581,145	12.7	219.5	169,384,645	87,958,358
2019	2,581,145	12.3	212.9	164,924,445	83,565,851
2020	2,984,641	8.6	155.5	125,682,219	47,103,167
2021	2,984,641	8.4	164.9	130,671,684	56,856,663
2022	2,984,641	8.7	182.8	137,570,616	82,476,254

* 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 for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data

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:

Water Tower Place 🚨