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.)
Washtenaw on the Park 🏆 2645 2657 W LAWRENCE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	159 tons #30 Lowest in Chicago*
The Chicago Theatre 175 N State St	Performing Arts	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	434 tons Lowest 21%
Newberry Plaza Townhouse Association 1000 N STATE ST	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	191 tons Lowest 2%
U.S. Cellular Plaza - 8430 _ Goby LLC 8430 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Office	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	612 tons Lowest 36%
Union Park Lofts Condominium Association 1327 W WASHINGTON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	312 tons Lowest 10%
5460 S Woodlawn Ave 🏆 5460 5472 S WOODLAWN AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	163 tons Lowest 1%
7200 Ridge Condominium Association 7200 7216 N RIDGE BLVD	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	194 tons Lowest 2%
5452 S Ellis 🏆 5452 5466 S ELLIS AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	159 tons Lowest 1%
IMDC LAPORTE, LLC 4039 4051 N LAPORTE AVE	Multifamily Housing	3.1 kg/sqft Lowest 4%	301 tons Lowest 9%
2150 S Canalport Avenue 2150 S Canalport Avenue	Office	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	669 tons Lowest 40%
Union West Apartments 939 W WASHINGTON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,068 tons Highest 43%
Aberdeen West Loop (mb71) 20 22 N Aberdeen St	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	254 tons Lowest 6%
The Robey 4434 4444 N Damen Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	161 tons Lowest 1%
Map Factory Lofts 5235 N Ravenswood Ave	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	160 tons Lowest 1%
Lawn Terrace Apartments 2601 W 63rd St	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	377 tons Lowest 15%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data