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.
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.
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!
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.
Property Name / address | Primary Property Type |
Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO2 eq./sqft) |
Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO2 eq.) |
---|---|---|---|
Metro North Condominium Association
3946 N Ravenswood Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 260 tons
Lowest 6%
|
Pueblo Commons Condominium Association
8444 W Wilson Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 719 tons
Lowest 42%
|
Hiram H Belding Elementary School
🏆
(CPS)
4257 N Tripp Ave
| K-12 School | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 226 tons
Lowest 4%
|
Fernwood Elementary School
(CPS)
10041 S Union Ave
| K-12 School | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 220 tons
Lowest 3%
|
Oakwood Shores 2A
3711 S VINCENNES AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 990 tons
Highest 46%
|
Stewart Business Center
400 W 76th St
| Office | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 378 tons
Lowest 16%
|
850 West Adams Lofts Condominium Association
850 W Adams St
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 433 tons
Lowest 21%
|
Hayes Manor
🏆
1211 W MARQUETTE RD
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 122 tons
#16 Lowest in Chicago*
|
Shoreland
5454 S Shore Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 2,097 tons
Highest 21%
|
2758-2768 N Milwaukee Ave
2758 2768 N MILWAUKEE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 259 tons
Lowest 6%
|
2450 N Lakeview
2444 2458 N LAKEVIEW AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 321 tons
Lowest 11%
|
The Conservatory Condominium Association
2314 N LINCOLN PARK WEST
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 315 tons
Lowest 10%
|
425 South Financial
440 S LaSalle St
| Office | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 4,033 tons
Highest 9%
|
The Lofts at Arthington
3301 W Arthington St
| Multifamily Housing | 3.3 kg/sqft
Lowest 5%
| 761 tons
Lowest 45%
|
Wildwood IB World Magnet School
🏆
6950 N Hiawatha Avenue
| K-12 School | 3.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 4%
| 189 tons
Lowest 2%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data