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.)
SpringHill Suites - Residence Inn 400 410 N Dearborn St	Hotel	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	3,245 tons Highest 12%
Grand on Grand Condominium Association 200 W GRAND AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,361 tons Highest 34%
Algonquin #3 1616 E 50TH PL	Multifamily Housing	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	539 tons Lowest 30%
Smashotels Chicago LLC 228 E ONTARIO ST	Hotel	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,055 tons Highest 43%
St. Leo Residence 7750 S Emerald Ave	Multifamily Housing	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	598 tons Lowest 35%
Laird Bell Law Quadrangle 1111 E 60th St	College/University	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,957 tons Highest 23%
Gerald Delgado Kanoon Elementary Magnet School (CPS) 2233 S Kedzie Ave	K-12 School	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	619 tons Lowest 36%
George Washington High School (CPS) 3535 E 114th St	K-12 School	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,945 tons Highest 24%
Norwood Park Elementary School (CPS) 5900 N Nina Ave	K-12 School	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	511 tons Lowest 28%
Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center 2235 N Sheffield Ave	College/University	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,074 tons Highest 42%
Park View Towers Condominium Association 2740 N PINE GROVE AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	785 tons Lowest 46%
112th Street Building 11203 S ELLIS ST	Office	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	558 tons Lowest 32%
Parkshore Estates Nursing & Rehabilitation Center 6125 S KENWOOD AVE	Senior Living Community	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	1,170 tons Highest 39%
H/B Winchester, LLC 4500 N WINCHESTER AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	740 tons Lowest 43%
The Promenade Condominium Association 1201 W ADAMS ST	Multifamily Housing	9.1 kg/sqft Highest 19%	767 tons Lowest 45%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data