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.)
6119 6125 N Winchester 6119 6125 N WINCHESTER AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	560 tons Lowest 32%
The Field Museum 🚩 1400 S Lake Shore Dr	Mixed Use Property	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	12,417 tons #46 Highest
1415 Lunt Condominium Association 1415 W LUNT AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	407 tons Lowest 18%
444 N. Michigan 444 N Michigan Ave	Office	9.7 kg/sqft Highest 16%	5,023 tons Highest 7%
Richard Henry Lee Elementary School 6448 S Tripp Avenue	K-12 School	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	548 tons Lowest 31%
Pulaski Promenade 4150 S PULASKI RD	Lifestyle Center	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	1,181 tons Highest 39%
2501 N Elston Avenue 2501 N ELSTON AVE	Automobile Dealership	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	1,403 tons Highest 33%
1400 State Parkway Condominium Association 1400 N State Pkwy	Multifamily Housing	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	908 tons Highest 48%
Intrinsic School - Belmont Campus 4540 W Belmont Ave	K-12 School	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	553 tons Lowest 31%
Lionel Hampton Fine & Performing Arts ES (CPS) 3434 W 77th St	K-12 School	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	949 tons Highest 47%
Little Village Elementary School (CPS) 2620 S Lawndale Ave	K-12 School	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	706 tons Lowest 42%
Neal F Simeon Career Academy High School (CPS) 8235 S Vincennes Ave	K-12 School	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	2,740 tons Highest 15%
Hemingway House Condominium Association 1850-1856 N Clark St	Multifamily Housing	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	1,842 tons Highest 25%
5411 N Winthrop-CLK 5411 N WINTHROP AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	482 tons Lowest 25%
Reside at Belmont Harbor 426 W BELMONT AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	567 tons Lowest 32%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data