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.)
3284-CHICAGO, IL (WICKER PARK) 1360 N ASHLAND AVE	Retail Store	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	549 tons Lowest 31%
Woodbridge Nursing Pavilion, Ltd 2242 N Kedzie Blvd	Senior Living Community	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	540 tons Lowest 30%
HRTL - Parkway Apts: 712 W Diversey 712 720 W DIVERSEY PKWY	Multifamily Housing	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	504 tons Lowest 27%
5948-60 N. Broadway 🏆 5948 5958 N BROADWAY	Office	9.6 kg/sqft Highest 17%	157 tons #29 Lowest in Chicago*
5550 Dorchester (dc67) 5550 5556 S DORCHESTER AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	775 tons Lowest 45%
Sophy Hotel 1411 E 53Rd St	Hotel	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	703 tons Lowest 41%
Choxy LLC 530 N La Salle Dr	Hotel	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	588 tons Lowest 34%
de Nobili Hall-ID#254169 6350 N Kenmore Ave	Residence Hall/Dormitory	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	692 tons Lowest 41%
Maguire Hall-ID#254163 1 11 E Pearson Ave	Office	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	525 tons Lowest 29%
College of Education Building 2247 N Halstead Ave	College/University	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	484 tons Lowest 26%
Ambassador Hotel 1301 N STATE PKWY	Hotel	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	1,800 tons Highest 26%
Manhattan Building Condominium 423 439 S DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	1,154 tons Highest 40%
Professional Office Building 840 W Irving Park Rd	Medical Office	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	492 tons Lowest 26%
Granville Courts Condo Association 2025 W Granville Ave	Multifamily Housing	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	2,182 tons Highest 20%
2601-2607 N Milwaukee Avenue 2601 2607 N MILWAUKEE AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 17%	438 tons Lowest 21%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data