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.)
IL0303ZZ-METCALFE FED BLDG 77 W Jackson	Office	5.6 kg/sqft Lowest 33%	4,465 tons Highest 8%
Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy HS (CPS) 6130 S Wolcott Ave	K-12 School	5.6 kg/sqft Lowest 33%	1,719 tons Highest 28%
The Gage Commericial Condominium Building 18 28 S Michigan Ave	College/University	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	1,152 tons Highest 40%
A.M. 1980 1980 N Milwaukee Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	604 tons Lowest 35%
Montclare Senior Residences SLF of Lawndale LLC 4339 W 18TH PL	Senior Living Community	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	459 tons Lowest 23%
City Hyde Park 5105 S HARPER AVE	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	2,038 tons Highest 22%
The Resurrection Project - Casa Queretaro 2012 W 17th St	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	289 tons Lowest 8%
San Francisco Hall-ID# 254170 6327 N Kenmore Ave	Residence Hall/Dormitory	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	507 tons Lowest 27%
Farcroft Park, LLC 1337 W Fargo Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	631 tons Lowest 37%
917 W Eastwood 917 W Eastwood Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	417 tons Lowest 20%
Northwest Middle School (CPS) 2250 N Latrobe Ave	K-12 School	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	651 tons Lowest 39%
Helge A Haugan Elementary School (CPS) 4540 N Hamlin Ave	K-12 School	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	766 tons Lowest 45%
Skinner North (CPS) 650 W Scott	K-12 School	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	378 tons Lowest 15%
John T. Richardson Library 2350 N Kenmore Ave	College/University	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	1,022 tons Highest 44%
1448 North Lake Shore Drive Building Corporation 1448 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	5.5 kg/sqft Lowest 32%	964 tons Highest 46%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data