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.)
830 N Michigan Ave 830 N Michigan Ave	Office	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 30%	980 tons Highest 46%
2120 Lincoln Park West 2120 N LINCOLN PARK WEST	Multifamily Housing	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 30%	322 tons Lowest 11%
Presidents Plaza 1 8600 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Office	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 30%	3,260 tons Highest 12%
METROPOLITIAN PIER AND EXPOSITION AUTHORITY 🚨 📷 301 Cermak Rd	Convention Center	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 30%	72,303 tons #3 Highest
American Red Cross Greater Chicago 2200 W. Harrison St.	Office	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	480 tons Lowest 25%
Oakdale Terrace 525 W Oakdale Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	466 tons Lowest 24%
Maple Court Apartments 1120 1126 E 47th St	Multifamily Housing	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	392 tons Lowest 17%
CICS Ralph Ellison 1817 W 80th St	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	531 tons Lowest 29%
Stephen T Mather High School (CPS) 5835 N Lincoln Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	1,424 tons Highest 33%
Helen Peirce International Studies ES (CPS) 1423 W Bryn Mawr Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	1,030 tons Highest 44%
West Park Elementary Academy (CPS) 1425 N Tripp Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	626 tons Lowest 37%
Wolfgang A Mozart Elementary School (CPS) 2200 N Hamlin Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	709 tons Lowest 42%
Jacqueline B Vaughn Occupational High School (CPS) 4355 N Linder Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	385 tons Lowest 16%
Andrew Carnegie Elementary School (CPS) 1414 E 61st Pl	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	494 tons Lowest 26%
Lincoln Park Tower Condominium Association 1960 N Lincoln Park West	Multifamily Housing	7.7 kg/sqft Highest 31%	2,580 tons Highest 16%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data