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601 West Polk 
🚨

601 W Polk Street, Chicago IL, 60607 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 255504

Building Info

Square Footage
104,000 sqft
Lower than 60% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
130,550 sqft
Median Data Center
160,000 sqft
Built
1918
Primary Property Type
Data Center
Community Area
Near West Side
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information

For 2021

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
65.7 kg CO2e / sqft
#9 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Median Chicago Building
6.5 kg CO2e / sqft
Median Data Center
101.9 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
6,829 metric tons CO2 eq.
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Higher than 95% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
873.9 metric tons CO2 eq.
Median Data Center
18,871.3 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
1,287.3 kBtu / sqft
#9 Highest in Chicago* 🚨
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Median Chicago Building
126.8 kBtu / sqft
Median Data Center
1,997.8 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
459.7 kBtu / sqft
#14 Highest in Chicago* 🚩
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Median Chicago Building
73.6 kBtu / sqft
Median Data Center
717.5 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
0 kBtu
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Lower than 97% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
5,147,647.2 kBtu
This Building Didn't Burn Any Natural Gas! 🎉

This building burned no natural gas on-site and isn't connected to a district heating system, meaning it's fully electric!

Electricity Use
47,813,516.1 kBtu
#1 Lowest of Data Centers 🏆
Higher than 97% of all buildings
Median Chicago Building
3,656,138.8 kBtu
Median Data Center
131,693,953.5 kBtu

* Important Note: 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.

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: