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.)
6 West Hubbard 6 W HUBBARD ST	Office	12.8 kg/sqft Highest 8%	844 tons Lowest 49%
8501 West Higgins Rd Chicago IL 8501 W Higgins Rd	Office	12.8 kg/sqft Highest 8%	2,119 tons Highest 21%
Harmony Nursing and Rehabilitation 3919 W FOSTER AVE	Residential Care Facility	12.8 kg/sqft Highest 8%	825 tons Lowest 48%
Gateway Chicago West 3828 W Taylor St	Residential Care Facility	12.7 kg/sqft Highest 8%	654 tons Lowest 39%
Wishnick Hall (Illinois Tech) 3255 S Dearborn Street	College/University	12.6 kg/sqft Highest 8%	793 tons Lowest 46%
Alden Wentworth Rehabilitation & Health Care Center 201 W 69TH ST	Senior Living Community	12.6 kg/sqft Highest 8%	1,130 tons Highest 41%
CHICAGO 1030 W DIVISION ST	Wholesale Club/Supercenter	12.6 kg/sqft Highest 8%	1,900 tons Highest 24%
600 West Chicago & 900 N Kingsbury 🚨 600 W Chicago	Office	12.6 kg/sqft Highest 8%	27,152 tons #8 Highest
MARTIN LUTHER KING COMMUNITY CENTER (Chicago) 4314 S Cottage Grove Ave	Other - Entertainment/Public Assembly	12.5 kg/sqft Highest 9%	711 tons Lowest 42%
909 W. Washington Condo 909 W WASHINGTON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	12.5 kg/sqft Highest 9%	1,140 tons Highest 40%
Chicago Bar Association 321 S Plymouth Ct	Office	12.5 kg/sqft Highest 9%	1,238 tons Highest 38%
Southpoint Nursing & Rehabilitation Center 1010 W 95TH ST	Senior Living Community	12.5 kg/sqft Highest 9%	1,011 tons Highest 44%
Chicago-Central 4058 W Melrose St	Other - Specialty Hospital	12.5 kg/sqft Highest 9%	1,489 tons Highest 32%
8795 340 E Superior Street	College/University	12.4 kg/sqft Highest 9%	2,333 tons Highest 19%
Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center 1250 W 119th St	Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym	12.4 kg/sqft Highest 9%	1,972 tons Highest 23%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data