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.)
Robert J. Richardson Middle School 6018 S Karlov Avenue	K-12 School	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	521 tons Lowest 28%
Kleo 5504 S Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	330 tons Lowest 12%
1650 Adams 1636 W Adams St	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	220 tons Lowest 3%
3125 W Fullerton 3125 W Fullerton	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	612 tons Lowest 36%
Pac Lofts-1735 N Paulina 1735 N Paulina	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	817 tons Lowest 47%
Elizabeth H Sutherland Elementary School (CPS) 10015 S Leavitt St	K-12 School	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	310 tons Lowest 10%
William C. Goudy Technology Academy (CPS) 5120 N Winthrop Ave	K-12 School	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	383 tons Lowest 16%
Clifton-Fullerton Hall 2350 N Clifton Ave	College/University	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	359 tons Lowest 14%
Randolph Place Residences Condominium Association 165 N Canal St	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	2,939 tons Highest 14%
245-Senior Suites Chicago Midway 6800 S KEATING AVE	Senior Living Community	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	332 tons Lowest 12%
7200SSDR 7200 S SOUTH SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	300 tons Lowest 9%
The Pattington 660 676 W IRVING PARK RD	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	798 tons Lowest 46%
Park Harbor Condominium Association 3620 N. Pine Grove Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	360 tons Lowest 14%
541 Oakdale Assoc LLC 541 547 W OAKDALE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	387 tons Lowest 17%
Saint Luke Church & Academy 1500 W Belmont Ave	Other - Education	3.9 kg/sqft Lowest 9%	251 tons Lowest 5%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data