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.)
30 E. Division Condominium Association 30 E DIVISION ST	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	577 tons Lowest 33%
111 South Wacker 🚩 111 S Wacker	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	9,937 tons Highest 2%
350 North Orleans (Rivion LLC) 🚩 350 N Orleans St	Office	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	15,074 tons #33 Highest
Nicholas Senn High School (CPS) 5900 N Glenwood Ave	K-12 School	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	2,336 tons Highest 19%
29SA6-CHIGS-Sheraton Grand Chicago 301 E N Water St	Hotel	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	9,224 tons Highest 3%
Algonquin #2 1606 E 50TH PL	Multifamily Housing	8.0 kg/sqft Highest 28%	472 tons Lowest 24%
3755 at Oakwood Shores (Oakwood Shores 2C) 3753 3755 S Cottage Grove Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	579 tons Lowest 33%
The Montrevelle Condominium Association 520 N Halsted St	Multifamily Housing	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	873 tons Lowest 50%
Saieh Hall for Economics (UChicago) 5757 S University Ave	College/University	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	1,217 tons Highest 38%
Coleman Region 4 Offices (CPS) 4655 S Dearborn St	Office	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	783 tons Lowest 46%
Alessandro Volta Elementary School (CPS) 4950 N Avers Ave	K-12 School	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	681 tons Lowest 40%
Mary Gage Peterson Elementary School (CPS) 5500 N CHRISTIANA	K-12 School	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	774 tons Lowest 45%
John Foster Dulles Elementary School (CPS) 6311 S Calumet Ave	K-12 School	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	561 tons Lowest 32%
Pablo Casals Elementary School (CPS) 3501 W Potomac Ave	K-12 School	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	525 tons Lowest 29%
1111 S. Wabash Condominium Association 1111 S Wabash Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.9 kg/sqft Highest 29%	3,172 tons Highest 12%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data