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.)
6244-46 S King Drive 6244 S KING DR	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	437 tons Lowest 21%
Signature Residences Condominium Association 201 211 E 31ST ST	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	227 tons Lowest 4%
740 N. Milwaukee, LLC 740 N MILWAUKEE AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	367 tons Lowest 15%
Chicago Metropolitan Housing Development Corporation 5152 5178 S KING DR	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	258 tons Lowest 6%
Oakley Square (St. Stephen's Terrace) 2325 W JACKSON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	1,223 tons Highest 38%
South Chicago Senior Housing 3039 E 91ST ST	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	617 tons Lowest 36%
Theodore Roosevelt High School (CPS) 3436 W Wilson Ave	K-12 School	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	1,418 tons Highest 33%
950 W. Huron Condominium Association 950 W HURON ST	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	343 tons Lowest 13%
833 West Jackson 833 W Jackson Blvd	Office	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	297 tons Lowest 9%
1033 W Loyola (wy73) 1025 1035 W LOYOLA AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	405 tons Lowest 18%
3161 Cambridge 3161 N CAMBRIDGE AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	225 tons Lowest 4%
200 West Adams St. 200 W Adams St	Office	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	3,493 tons Highest 11%
Magnolia Gardens, LLC 4845 4859 N MAGNOLIA AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.4 kg/sqft Lowest 14%	224 tons Lowest 4%
5222 S Drexel 5222 5238 S DREXEL AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	391 tons Lowest 17%
Hale Lofts 14 N Peoria Street	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	475 tons Lowest 25%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data