Electrify Chicago

According to the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan, a whopping 69% of Chicago's emissions come from buildings, making it our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity as a city to tackle change. At Electrify Chicago we want to showcase some of the best and worst performing buildings in the city using publicly available data and manual annotations to add building photographs and label multi-building owners like universities.

2017 GHG Emissions -
31M metric tons CO2 equivalent
69% buildings
24% transportation
7% waste

Chicago 2022 CAP

You can start by looking at Chicago's buildings with the highest greenhouse gas intensity - this means that they use the most energy when adjusted per unit of square foot, so big buildings could actually perform much better than very inefficient small buildings on this metric.

Legislative update! 🎉

As of late January 2024, legislation is being introduced to require new buildings use more efficient forms of water and space heating, via the Clean And Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO), which will reduce the number of highly polluting and inefficient that end up on this site.

If you're in Chicago, write to your alderman to support the CABO!

Chicago Buildings by Greenhouse Gas Intensity

Note: Data only includes large Chicago buildings from 2021, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Note: This data only includes buildings whose emissions are reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance. According to the City “As of 2016, this list includes all commercial, institutional, and residential buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.” This dataset is also then filtered to only buildings with reported emissions > 1,000 metric tons CO₂ equivalent.

This data is also from 2021, but when new benchmark data is available, we'll update the site.

Chicago 2022 CAP

Property Name / address	Primary Property Type	Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO₂ eq./sqft)	Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO₂ eq.)
1366 North Dearborn Condominium Association 1366 N DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	463 tons Lowest 23%
Casa Bonita Condominium Association 7340 7352 N RIDGE BLVD	Multifamily Housing	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	663 tons Lowest 39%
Edgewater Venture LLLP 5439 5443 N KENMORE AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	314 tons Lowest 10%
33 N. Dearborn 33 N Dearborn St	Office	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	2,248 tons Highest 19%
Two North LaSalle 2 N LaSalle St	Office	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	4,682 tons Highest 7%
525 West Monroe 525 W Monroe St	Office	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	6,197 tons Highest 5%
Aon Center 🚩 200 E Randolph St	Office	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	19,200 tons #20 Highest
73 East Lake (sl75) 73 E LAKE ST	Multifamily Housing	6.0 kg/sqft Lowest 41%	1,806 tons Highest 26%
1 South Leavitt (CHA) 1 S Leavitt Street	Multifamily Housing	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	329 tons Lowest 12%
Broadway 6145 Master Associates LLC 6149 N. Broadway	Multifamily Housing	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	455 tons Lowest 23%
Lake Village East 4700 S Lake Park Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	1,069 tons Highest 43%
CICS Longwood 1309 W 95th St	K-12 School	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	980 tons Highest 46%
CICS Basil 1816 W Garfield Blvd	K-12 School	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	339 tons Lowest 12%
Durkin Park Elementary School (CPS) 8445 S Kolin Ave	K-12 School	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	514 tons Lowest 28%
William H Ray Elementary School (CPS) 5631 S Kimbark Ave	K-12 School	5.9 kg/sqft Lowest 39%	678 tons Lowest 40%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data