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 SOUTH LOOP (1889) 1154 S Clark St	Retail Store	9.9 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,773 tons Highest 27%
River Village Pointe Condominium Association (CHA) 845 N KINGSBURY	Multifamily Housing	9.9 kg/sqft Highest 16%	862 tons Lowest 49%
The Professional Building (Central Campus Health Center) 1950 W Polk St	Office	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	2,768 tons Highest 15%
Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons (UChicago) 6031 S Ellis Ave	Residence Hall/Dormitory	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	3,334 tons Highest 11%
Reid Murdoch Center 315 - 331 N LaSalle St	Office	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	3,302 tons Highest 12%
Montgomery on Superior Condominium Association 500 W Superior St	Multifamily Housing	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	3,936 tons Highest 10%
Shops and Lofts at 47 (CHA) 4700 S COTTAGE GROVE AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,982 tons Highest 23%
770 N. Halsted St. 770 N Halsted St	Office	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,441 tons Highest 32%
CHICAGO SOUTH PULASKI (1879) 4433 S Pulaski Rd	Retail Store	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,184 tons Highest 39%
CHICAGO NEAR NORTH (0942) 2656 N Elston Ave	Retail Store	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,822 tons Highest 25%
Cook County Building 118 N Clark St	Office	9.8 kg/sqft Highest 16%	6,281 tons Highest 5%
2229 South Halsted 2229 S Halsted St	Office	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	827 tons Lowest 48%
Tailor Lofts: 315 South Peoria Street 310 S PEORIA ST	Multifamily Housing	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,817 tons Highest 26%
Piper's Alley 230 W North Ave	Mixed Use Property	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	2,136 tons Highest 21%
Silversmith Hotel & Suites - CSS 10 S Wabash Ave	Hotel	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,304 tons Highest 36%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data