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.)
The Brownstone Condominium Association 1440 N STATE PKWY	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	929 tons Highest 48%
O.P.LLC/Orleans Plaza 351 W Hubbard St	Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	1,782 tons Highest 26%
Sovereign- ID#174155 1040 W GRANVILLE AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	1,301 tons Highest 36%
IL0032ZZ-CHICAGO CUSTOMHOUSE 610 S Canal St	Courthouse	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	2,588 tons Highest 16%
Ascension Stone Professional Office Building 2800 - 2812 N Sheridan Rd	Medical Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	896 tons Highest 49%
Teresa Roldan Apartment on Paseo Boricua 1154 N CAMPBELL	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	487 tons Lowest 26%
Headquarters 547 W Jackson Blvd	Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 18%	3,246 tons Highest 12%
Old Town Park - Phase 1 1140 N Wells St	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	2,860 tons Highest 14%
Richard J Daley Elementary Academy (CPS) 5024 S Wolcott Ave	K-12 School	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	676 tons Lowest 40%
30 E Elm 30 E ELM ST	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	819 tons Lowest 47%
LEARN Charter School Herro Family Campus 3021 W Carroll Ave	K-12 School	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	965 tons Highest 46%
St. Peter's Church 110 W Madison St	Residence Hall/Dormitory	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	631 tons Lowest 37%
CHICAGO WEST LOOP (2781) 1101 W Jackson Blvd	Retail Store	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,560 tons Highest 30%
72 E 11th St 72 E 11th St	College/University	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	613 tons Lowest 36%
Delaware Place Private Res 875 N DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,377 tons Highest 34%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data