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.)
Chicago Transit Authority - 120 N. Racine 120 N Racine Ave	Office	11.0 kg/sqft Highest 12%	1,383 tons Highest 34%
Harper Center (Booth School) (UChicago) 5807 S Woodlawn Ave	College/University	11.0 kg/sqft Highest 12%	4,604 tons Highest 8%
60 W Erie Condo 60 W ERIE ST	Multifamily Housing	11.0 kg/sqft Highest 12%	760 tons Lowest 45%
Alden Princeton Rehab & Health Care Center 255 W 69th St	Senior Living Community	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	871 tons Lowest 50%
Collins Academy High School (CPS) 1313 S Sacramento Blvd	K-12 School	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	2,243 tons Highest 19%
4343 Clarendon Condominium 4343 N Clarendon Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	3,849 tons Highest 10%
Lake Meadows 3 3420 S COTTAGE GROVE AVE	Multifamily Housing	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	1,172 tons Highest 39%
Golden Mile Hotels 660 N State St	Hotel	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	1,297 tons Highest 36%
00821-Brookdale Lake View 3101-3121 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	2,248 tons Highest 19%
2641 West Harrison 2641 W Harrison St	Other	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	609 tons Lowest 35%
Archer Courts Apartments (CHA) 2220 2242 S PRINCETON AVE	Multifamily Housing	10.9 kg/sqft Highest 12%	1,505 tons Highest 31%
Plumbers Local 130 UA 1340 W Washington Blvd	Office	10.8 kg/sqft Highest 12%	550 tons Lowest 31%
The Renaissance at Southshore 2425 E 71st St	Senior Living Community	10.8 kg/sqft Highest 12%	876 tons Lowest 50%
T.E. Brown Apartments 3601 3613 S WELLS ST	Multifamily Housing	10.8 kg/sqft Highest 12%	941 tons Highest 47%
1165 Property Owner, LLC 1165 N Clark St	Office	10.8 kg/sqft Highest 12%	1,111 tons Highest 41%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data