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.)
4900 Marine Drive Condo 4900 N Marine Dr	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	383 tons Lowest 16%
Lazaro Cardenas Elementary School (South) (CPS) 2524 S Central Ave	K-12 School	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	285 tons Lowest 8%
200 North Kenneth Apartments 4432 4444 W WEST END AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	222 tons Lowest 4%
3740-3750 N. Pine Grove, LLC 🏆 3740 N PINE GROVE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	178 tons Lowest 2%
Fountainview Apartments (CHA) 1333 1339 S INDEPENDENCE BLVD	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	293 tons Lowest 9%
HighSchool_LeoHS 7901 S Sangamon St	K-12 School	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	377 tons Lowest 15%
DANK Haus German American Cultural Center 4740 N Western Ave	Mixed Use Property	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	208 tons Lowest 3%
Dearborn Tower Condominium Association 1530 S State St	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	2,532 tons Highest 17%
901 W Jackson 901 W Jackson Blvd	Office	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	188 tons Lowest 2%
Fairbanks Lofts 900 902 S WABASH AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	254 tons Lowest 6%
Oakley Lofts Condominium Association 2300 2308 W DIVERSEY AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	168 tons Lowest 1%
Yesteryear Condo Association 4211 4221 N PAULINA ST	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	266 tons Lowest 6%
The Regent Condominium Association 190 E WALTON PL	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	315 tons Lowest 11%
33 W. Huron Condominium Association 33 W HURON ST	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	625 tons Lowest 37%
Mildred Court Condominium Association 2701 2711 N MILDRED AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.4 kg/sqft Lowest 5%	210 tons Lowest 3%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data