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.)
Grand Briar CA 433 W BRIAR PL	Multifamily Housing	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	256 tons Lowest 6%
120 South Riverside Plaza 120 S Riverside Plz	Office	3.8 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	3,023 tons Highest 14%
450 W Belmont (wb008) 450 W BELMONT AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	634 tons Lowest 38%
The Residences at the Eagle Building 3833 N Broadway	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	633 tons Lowest 37%
Hyde Park Courtway 4816 4828 S Dorchester Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	260 tons Lowest 6%
THC Lyndale Limited Partnership 2575 W Lyndale	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	310 tons Lowest 10%
Whitmore Apartments 421 S Central Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	257 tons Lowest 6%
Friedrich W von Steuben Metropolitan Science HS (CPS) 5039 N Kimball Ave	K-12 School	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	923 tons Highest 48%
Park Alexandria Condominium Association 125 S Jefferson St	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	1,555 tons Highest 30%
IL2125ZZ-QUINCY COURT BLDG 11 W Quincy Ct	Office	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	451 tons Lowest 22%
Central Park Apartments 4501 N CENTRAL PARK AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	185 tons Lowest 2%
3525 W. Peterson Avenue 3525 W Peterson Ave	Office	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	214 tons Lowest 3%
Kass Management Services, Inc. (5123-5135 S. University Ave.) 5123 5135 S UNIVERSITY AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	214 tons Lowest 3%
Trio-Abacus 670 W Wayman St	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	1,023 tons Highest 44%
2336 N Commonwealth Ave 2336 N COMMONWEALTH AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.7 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	373 tons Lowest 15%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data