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.)
301 N. Austin Blvd 🏆 301 N Austin Blvd	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	193 tons Lowest 2%
The Landmark Lofts Condominium Association 1516 1518 S WABASH AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	472 tons Lowest 25%
Westhaven Park Tower Condo Association (CHA) 100 N HERMITAGE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	669 tons Lowest 40%
4310-22 N Clarendon 4310 4322 N CLARENDON AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	249 tons Lowest 5%
1725 West North Avenue Condominium 1725 W NORTH AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	182 tons Lowest 2%
2828 N Burling 2816 2828 N BURLING ST	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	289 tons Lowest 8%
Plaza 32 Condominium Association 3224 3244 N HALSTED ST	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	1,052 tons Highest 43%
Eddystone Condominium Homes, Inc. 415 421 W MELROSE ST	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	950 tons Highest 47%
StBedetheVenerable_School 4400 W 83rd St	K-12 School	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	291 tons Lowest 8%
4001 N. Ravenswood LLC 4001 N Ravenswood Ave	Other	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	294 tons Lowest 9%
Greenglen Park Property, LLC 1373 1383 W GREENLEAF AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	284 tons Lowest 8%
10725-Bucktown 2140 N Elston Ave	Retail Store	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	497 tons Lowest 27%
Jefferson Courte Condominium Association 4848 N CENTRAL AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	233 tons Lowest 4%
442 Wellington Cooperative Building Corporation 442 444 W WELLINGTON AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	496 tons Lowest 27%
534 West Stratford 532 536 W STRATFORD PL	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	605 tons Lowest 35%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data