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.)
Lake Terrace Condominium Association 7337 S SOUTH SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	2,203 tons Highest 20%
The Townhouse Apartments 7022 S SOUTH SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,059 tons Highest 43%
Fifth Praire Shores, LLC 2801 S King Dr	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	2,351 tons Highest 18%
The Westin Michigan Avenue 909 N Michigan Ave	Hotel	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	4,426 tons Highest 8%
57 63 W Grand Ave 57 - 63 W Grand Ave	Office	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	637 tons Lowest 38%
Midrise at Ike Sims Village 3333 W MAYPOLE AVE	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	633 tons Lowest 37%
LaSalle Towers Condominium Association 1211 1217 N LASALLE DR	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	464 tons Lowest 24%
Chicago IL SCH 162 164 E ONTARIO ST	Hotel	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	621 tons Lowest 36%
1900 West Pratt LLC 1900 1912 W PRATT BLVD	Multifamily Housing	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	393 tons Lowest 17%
400 W. Superior (Chicago) 400 W Superior St	Office	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,058 tons Highest 43%
Fordham Hall- ID# 103681 6427-6455 N Sheridan Rd	Residence Hall/Dormitory	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	924 tons Highest 48%
203 North LaSalle 203 N LaSalle St	Office	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	5,091 tons Highest 7%
Chicago Cultural Center 78 E Washington St	Other - Entertainment/Public Assembly	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,935 tons Highest 24%
101 North Wacker 101 N Wacker Dr	Office	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	5,368 tons Highest 6%
541 N Fairbanks 541 N Fairbanks	Office	8.1 kg/sqft Highest 26%	5,750 tons Highest 6%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data