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.)
Oriental Institute 5850 S Woodlawn Ave	Museum	14.1 kg/sqft Highest 7%	1,450 tons Highest 32%
444 W Jackson 444 W Jackson Blvd	Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym	14.0 kg/sqft Highest 7%	995 tons Highest 45%
Sheridan Shores 640 W SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	14.0 kg/sqft Highest 7%	854 tons Lowest 49%
Presence Center for Advanced Care 331 W Surf St	Medical Office	13.9 kg/sqft Highest 7%	3,342 tons Highest 11%
Bradley Business Center I 2650 W Bradley Pl	Office	13.8 kg/sqft Highest 7%	2,071 tons Highest 22%
217 N. Jefferson 217 221 N JEFFERSON ST	Office	13.8 kg/sqft Highest 7%	802 tons Lowest 46%
Aperion Care International 4815 S Western Blvd	Senior Living Community	13.7 kg/sqft Highest 7%	1,248 tons Highest 37%
Halsted Terrance Nursing Home 10935 S HALSTED ST	Senior Living Community	13.7 kg/sqft Highest 7%	824 tons Lowest 48%
8816 🚩 375 E Chicago Ave	College/University	13.6 kg/sqft Highest 7%	5,267 tons Highest 6%
Schatz Building 610 N FAIRBANKS CT	Retail Store	13.6 kg/sqft Highest 7%	981 tons Highest 46%
Crowell 820 N. LaSalle 820 N LaSalle St	College/University	13.6 kg/sqft Highest 7%	1,403 tons Highest 34%
211 N Stetson Avenue 211 N STETSON AVE	Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym	13.5 kg/sqft Highest 7%	1,589 tons Highest 30%
Walmart Supercenter #5402 4650 W North Ave	Wholesale Club/Supercenter	13.5 kg/sqft Highest 7%	1,913 tons Highest 24%
Chapin Hall 1313 E 60th St	College/University	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 8%	880 tons Lowest 50%
AJ1034 - Chicago Marriott @ Medical District/UIC 625 S Ashland Ave	Hotel	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 8%	965 tons Highest 46%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data