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.)
850 Eastwood 850 W EASTWOOD AVE	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	1,303 tons Highest 36%
1900 W. Farwell, LLC 1900 1910 W FARWELL AVE	Multifamily Housing	5.3 kg/sqft Lowest 28%	311 tons Lowest 10%
2071 N Southport Avenue 2071 N Southport Avenue	Office	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	428 tons Lowest 20%
Grand & Orleans 330 W Grand Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	1,087 tons Highest 42%
Balmoral Plaza Condominium 2606-2610 W Balmoral Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	273 tons Lowest 7%
Wicker Park Connection - 1640 W Division 1640 W Division St	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	765 tons Lowest 45%
2019 - 4820 N Kedzie Ave 4820 N KEDZIE AVE	Senior Living Community	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	312 tons Lowest 10%
Mertz Hall - CFSU-ID# 254162 1125 W Loyola Ave	Residence Hall/Dormitory	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	1,337 tons Highest 35%
1515 Michigan Avenue Condominium Association 1515 S Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	322 tons Lowest 11%
The Lofts at 1800 Condominium Association 1800 W Grace St	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	951 tons Highest 47%
550 W Fulton Condo Assoc. 550 W Fulton	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	334 tons Lowest 12%
Surf II LLC 420 W Surf St	Multifamily Housing	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	296 tons Lowest 9%
Louis Pasteur Elementary School (CPS) 5825 S Kostner Ave	K-12 School	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	511 tons Lowest 28%
Norman A Bridge Elementary School (CPS) 3800 N New England Ave	K-12 School	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	462 tons Lowest 23%
Mark Sheridan Math & Science Academy (CPS) 533 W 27th St	K-12 School	5.2 kg/sqft Lowest 27%	405 tons Lowest 18%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data