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.)
MMS - Chicago - 170 W Oak Street 170 W Oak St	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	1,178 tons Highest 39%
828 W Grace 828 W GRACE ST	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	1,056 tons Highest 43%
Ridge Place Apartments 7115 7129 N RIDGE BLVD	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	247 tons Lowest 5%
Universal City 9510 S CONSTANCE AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	778 tons Lowest 46%
Lafayette Terrace Apartments benchmarking account 6950 S VINCENNES AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	244 tons Lowest 5%
Plymouth Court 1115 S PLYMOUTH CT	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	781 tons Lowest 46%
2130 N. Lincoln Park West 2130 N LINCOLN PARK WEST	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	665 tons Lowest 39%
Washington Square Condominium Association 1301 1309 W WASHINGTON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	390 tons Lowest 17%
Fairfield Hall-ID#105533 6228 6240 N WINTHROP AVE	Residence Hall/Dormitory	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	269 tons Lowest 7%
4701 N Beacon 4701 4705 N BEACON ST	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	241 tons Lowest 5%
theMART, Chicago 🚩 📷 222 Merchandise Mart Plz	Office	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	19,842 tons #17 Highest
The Resurrection Project - Casa Morelos 2015 S MORGAN ST	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	263 tons Lowest 6%
Roseland Place 10426 S MICHIGAN AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.8 kg/sqft Lowest 20%	225 tons Lowest 4%
325 S. Paulina St. (Teamsters Local 705) 325 S Paulina St	Office	4.7 kg/sqft Lowest 19%	277 tons Lowest 7%
Wicker Park - 1241 N Milwaukee 1241 N Milwaukee Ave	Multifamily Housing	4.7 kg/sqft Lowest 19%	332 tons Lowest 12%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data