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.)
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