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.)
2600 N Hampden 2600 N HAMPDEN CT	Multifamily Housing	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	348 tons Lowest 13%
222 North LaSalle 222 N LaSalle St	Office	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	6,580 tons Highest 5%
Montclare Senior Residences of Avalon Park Phase I 1200 E 78TH ST	Multifamily Housing	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	496 tons Lowest 27%
New Englewood Terrace Apartments 6425 S Lowe	Multifamily Housing	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	1,749 tons Highest 27%
St. Rita of Cascia High School 7740 S Western Ave	K-12 School	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	1,495 tons Highest 31%
C3600FRA (22112) 3600 3612 W FRANKLIN BLVD	Multifamily Housing	5.4 kg/sqft Lowest 30%	341 tons Lowest 13%
Algonquin Venture Real Estate LLC 1135 W SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	533 tons Lowest 30%
1214 W. Jackson Blvd 1220 W. Jackson Blvd	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	689 tons Lowest 41%
Midpointe Apartments 4050 West 115th Street	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	2,097 tons Highest 21%
The Sinclair 1201 N LaSalle Street	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	3,125 tons Highest 13%
Woodlawn Station 6253 S Cottage Grove Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	459 tons Lowest 23%
1001 South State 1001 S STATE ST	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	2,707 tons Highest 15%
5924 N Lincoln 5924 N Lincoln Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	265 tons Lowest 6%
Reside by Irving Park 725 W Irving Park Rd	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	334 tons Lowest 12%
20 N State 20 N State St	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	1,114 tons Highest 41%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data