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.)
Atelier (5556 N. Sheridan Rd.) 5556 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	388 tons Lowest 17%
Sanctuary Hall 2358 N Sheffield Ave	College/University	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	368 tons Lowest 15%
The New York Private Residences (242935) 3660 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	2,211 tons Highest 20%
Lakefront Place 6730 SOUTH SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	518 tons Lowest 28%
Lake Street Lofts LLC 900 910 912 W Lake St & 212 N Peoria St	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	376 tons Lowest 15%
420 W Melrose LLC 420 W MELROSE ST	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	201 tons Lowest 2%
CAIII Condominium Association 122-134 S Aberdeen St	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	415 tons Lowest 19%
Lofts of River East 401 465 E Illinois St	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	1,381 tons Highest 34%
The Pavilion 5441 N East River Rd	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	3,765 tons Highest 10%
Lincoln Park 2550 Condominium Association 2550 N Lakeview Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	3,523 tons Highest 11%
Ridgemoor Estates V Condominium Association 6430 W BELLE PLAINE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	222 tons Lowest 3%
(IL405) -110 W Superior 110 W SUPERIOR ST	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	962 tons Highest 46%
10 W ELM 2 10 W ELM ST	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	610 tons Lowest 35%
6825 Sheridan Rd Building Partnership 6825 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	3.5 kg/sqft Lowest 6%	356 tons Lowest 14%
Clinton Complex 📷 500 S Clinton St	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	1,136 tons Highest 40%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data