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.)
East Park Tower 5236 5252 S HYDE PARK BLVD	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	587 tons Lowest 34%
The Metro 1200 W MONROE	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	1,206 tons Highest 38%
616 Fulton Lofts Condominium Association 616 W FULTON ST	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	695 tons Lowest 41%
2550 S Wabash 2550 2558 S WABASH AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	294 tons Lowest 9%
Keller Center 1307 E 60TH ST	College/University	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	522 tons Lowest 29%
Printers Row Lofts 722 740 S FINANCIAL PL	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	859 tons Lowest 49%
227-237 E Delaware Place 227 239 E DELAWARE PL	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	854 tons Lowest 49%
517-25 W. Brompton Ave. 517 525 W BROMPTON AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 13%	225 tons Lowest 4%
440 W Barry LLC 440 442 W BARRY AVE	Multifamily Housing	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	283 tons Lowest 8%
Southeast Area Elementary School 3930 E 105th Street	K-12 School	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	464 tons Lowest 24%
Harding Court 4845-4859 N Harding	Multifamily Housing	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	217 tons Lowest 3%
Francisco 4011 N Francisco Avenue	Multifamily Housing	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	231 tons Lowest 4%
Parkside IIB 459 W Division St	Multifamily Housing	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	597 tons Lowest 35%
Parkside Terrace Apartments 137-143 N Parkside Ave	Multifamily Housing	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	355 tons Lowest 13%
Jonathan Y Scammon Elementary School (CPS) 4201 W Henderson St	K-12 School	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 12%	359 tons Lowest 14%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data