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.
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.
| Property Name / address | Primary Property Type |
Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO2 eq./sqft) |
Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO2 eq.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
OneEleven
111 W WACKER DR
| Multifamily Housing | 8.4 kg/sqft 
Highest 23%
| 3,859 tons
Highest 10%
|
|
Second Prairie Shores, LLC
2951 S King Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 8.4 kg/sqft
Highest 23%
| 2,416 tons
Highest 18%
|
|
The Shops on Wabash, LLC
17 23 N WABASH AVE
| Office | 8.4 kg/sqft
Highest 23%
| 590 tons 
Lowest 34%
|
|
Gleacher Center
450 N Cityfront Plz
| College/University | 8.4 kg/sqft
Highest 23%
| 1,793 tons
Highest 26%
|
|
Water Tower Place
🚨
845 N Michigan Ave
| Mixed Use Property | 8.4 kg/sqft
Highest 23%
| 21,683 tons #10 Highest
|
|
Gateway Apartments (Sneider Apartments)
7450 N ROGERS AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 8.4 kg/sqft
Highest 23%
| 813 tons
Lowest 47%
|
|
Mansueto High School
2911 W 47Th St
| K-12 School | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 555 tons
Lowest 31%
|
|
Holtschneider Performance Center
(DePaul)
2330 N HALSTED ST
| Performing Arts | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 1,544 tons
Highest 30%
|
|
Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago
126 E CHESTNUT ST
| Worship Facility | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 1,362 tons
Highest 34%
|
|
Heritage Woods of Chicago
2800 W Fulton St
| Senior Living Community | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 614 tons
Lowest 36%
|
|
Pullman Park
10808 - 10830 S Doty Ave W
| Retail Store | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 554 tons
Lowest 31%
|
|
Harper Library
1116 E 59th St
| Social/Meeting Hall | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 995 tons
Highest 45%
|
|
CHICAGO MID NORTH (1437)
2939 W Addison St
| Retail Store | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 1,595 tons
Highest 29%
|
|
Back of the Yards IB HS
(CPS)
2111 W 47th St
| K-12 School | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 1,766 tons
Highest 27%
|
|
Sharon Christa McAuliffe Elementary School
(CPS)
1845 N Springfield Ave
| K-12 School | 8.3 kg/sqft
Highest 24%
| 751 tons
Lowest 44%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data