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.)
U.S. Cellular Plaza - 8410 _ Goby LLC 8410 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Office	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	1,851 tons Highest 25%
Phillip Murray Elementary Language Academy (CPS) 5335 S Kenwood Ave	K-12 School	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	645 tons Lowest 38%
Nathan S Davis Elementary School (CPS) 3014 W 39th Place	K-12 School	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	1,062 tons Highest 43%
Eliza Chappell Elementary School (CPS) 5145 N Leavitt St	K-12 School	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	756 tons Lowest 44%
River East Center Campus 🚩 322 E Illinois St	Mixed Use Property	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	13,154 tons #41 Highest
Yards Burlington 4510 S Damen Ave	Retail Store	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	652 tons Lowest 39%
1555 Astor Condo 1555 N Astor St	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,687 tons Highest 15%
Thorndale Beach South Condominium Association 5855 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,511 tons Highest 17%
The Elm at Clark 1122 N Clark St	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	3,119 tons Highest 13%
The Versailles 5254 S DORCHESTER AVE	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	556 tons Lowest 32%
210 N. Wells 210 N Wells St	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	3,373 tons Highest 11%
Symphony Center 220 S Michigan Ave	Performing Arts	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,556 tons Highest 16%
Reside on Morse 1340 W MORSE AVE	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	541 tons Lowest 30%
East Park Redevelopment Limited Partnership 3300 W MAYPOLE AVE	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	551 tons Lowest 31%
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Campus 1100 S Hamilton Ave	Mixed Use Property	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	8,866 tons Highest 3%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data