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.)
La Casa Norte 3527 W North Avenue	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	409 tons Lowest 19%
1323 W Morse 1323 W Morse Ave	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	454 tons Lowest 23%
Pritzker Science Center 3105 S Dearborn St	College/University	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	994 tons Highest 45%
Lakeview 3200 3218 N CLARK ST	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	1,085 tons Highest 42%
333 N. Green 330 N Green St	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	4,443 tons Highest 8%
Halas Recreation Center- ID# 254386 6458 N WINTHROP AVE	College/University	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	976 tons Highest 46%
Salvation Army - Divisional Headquarters (DHQ) 5040 N. Pulaski	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	606 tons Lowest 35%
HRTL - Hollywood House: 5700 N Sheridan Rd 5700 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	1,201 tons Highest 39%
Gary Comer Youth Center 7200 S Ingleside Ave	Other	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	639 tons Lowest 38%
The Granville Condominum Association 1134 W Granville Ave	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	1,931 tons Highest 24%
STEM Magnet Academy (CPS) 1522 W Fillmore Blvd	K-12 School	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	555 tons Lowest 31%
Columbia Explorers Elementary Academy (CPS) 4520 S Kedzie Ave	K-12 School	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	721 tons Lowest 42%
Garfield Park Office (CPS) 2651 W Washington Blvd	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	578 tons Lowest 33%
IBEW Local 134 2722 S King Dr	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	543 tons Lowest 30%
Arts & Letters Hall 2315 N Kenmore Ave	College/University	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	893 tons Highest 49%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data