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.)
Langston Hughes Elementary School (CPS) 226 W 104th St	K-12 School	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,016 tons Highest 44%
John Charles Haines Elementary School (CPS) 247 W 23rd Place	K-12 School	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	770 tons Lowest 45%
The Scott Residences 211 W Scott St	Multifamily Housing	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	740 tons Lowest 43%
800 N. Michigan Condominium Association 800 N Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	6,915 tons Highest 4%
5220 S. Pulaski Road 5220 S Pulaski Rd	Other - Mall	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	626 tons Lowest 37%
Midwest Orthopedics at Rush 1611 W HARRISON ST	Medical Office	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	2,162 tons Highest 21%
The Mentor Building 39 S STATE ST	Multifamily Housing	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	739 tons Lowest 43%
939 North Avenue Collection,LLC 913 949 W North Ave	Mixed Use Property	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	2,244 tons Highest 19%
30 W Oak CA 30 W OAK ST	Multifamily Housing	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,832 tons Highest 25%
TEAM Englewood Community Academy High School (CPS) 6201 S Stewart Ave	K-12 School	10.2 kg/sqft Highest 14%	1,934 tons Highest 24%
110-112 South State Street 100 South State Street	Office	10.1 kg/sqft Highest 15%	727 tons Lowest 43%
MLK Medical Properties, LLC 2535 S Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr	Medical Office	10.1 kg/sqft Highest 15%	555 tons Lowest 31%
Freedom Center 825 N CHRISTIANA AVE	Residence Hall/Dormitory	10.1 kg/sqft Highest 15%	1,861 tons Highest 25%
HAYMARKET CENTER 932 W Washington Blvd	Residential Care Facility	10.1 kg/sqft Highest 15%	1,518 tons Highest 31%
Francis M McKay Elementary School (CPS) 6929 S Fairfield	K-12 School	10.1 kg/sqft Highest 15%	1,295 tons Highest 36%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data