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.)
Parkside of Old Town Midrise Leasehold Condominium Association 437 W DIVISION ST	Multifamily Housing	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,143 tons Highest 40%
AMA Plaza 🚩 330 N Wabash Av	Office	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 14%	19,501 tons #19 Highest
Park West Condominium 444 W FULLERTON PKWY	Multifamily Housing	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,998 tons Highest 23%
500 N Michigan 500 N Michigan Ave	Office	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 14%	4,191 tons Highest 9%
5148 N Kedzie Ave 5148 N KEDZIE AVE	College/University	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,185 tons Highest 39%
6700 Crandon Condominium Association 6700 S Crandon Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	841 tons Lowest 48%
Press Office Building 1427 E 60th St	Office	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	968 tons Highest 46%
1333 North Kingsbury 1333 N Kingsbury	Office	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,084 tons Highest 42%
National Teachers Elementary Academy (CPS) 55 W Cermak Rd	K-12 School	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,604 tons Highest 29%
Louis A Agassiz Elementary School (CPS) 2851 N Seminary Ave	K-12 School	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	594 tons Lowest 34%
Clargran 515 N Clark St	Hotel	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	3,551 tons Highest 11%
North Harbor Tower (nr021) 175 N Harbor Dr	Multifamily Housing	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	5,949 tons Highest 5%
The Studios 1801 S WABASH AVE	Multifamily Housing	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	611 tons Lowest 35%
5600 N. Sheridan 5600 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,030 tons Highest 44%
Michigan 30 LLC 30 N Michigan Ave	Office	10.3 kg/sqft Highest 14%	2,285 tons Highest 19%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data