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.)
Granville Apartments, LLC 6230 6236 N KENMORE AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Highest 34%	1,105 tons Highest 41%
Pine Grove Apartments 3639 3649 N PINE GROVE AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Highest 34%	752 tons Lowest 44%
630 N. Franklin Condominium Association 630 N Franklin St	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,659 tons Highest 28%
Diversey Square Associates II 3212 West Diversey Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	349 tons Lowest 13%
640 North Wells LLC 640 N Wells	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,592 tons Highest 29%
710 W. Grand Apartments 710 W Grand Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	668 tons Lowest 40%
2950 North Sheridan 2950 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	997 tons Highest 45%
Greenview Place SLF 1501 W Melrose St	Senior Living Community	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	612 tons Lowest 36%
Argyle Place Apartments 840 850 W Argyle St	Multifamily Housing	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	439 tons Lowest 21%
The Montessori School of Englewood Charter (CPS) 6936 S Hermitage Ave	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	523 tons Lowest 29%
Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy (CPS) 7651 S Homan Ave	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,547 tons Highest 30%
DeVry University Advantage Academy HS 1326 W 14th Place	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	818 tons Lowest 47%
George M Pullman Elementary School (CPS) 11311 S Forrestville Ave	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	593 tons Lowest 34%
Sidney Sawyer Elementary School (CPS) 5248 S Sawyer Ave	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,213 tons Highest 38%
Walter S Christopher Elementary School (CPS) 5042 S Artesian Ave	K-12 School	7.4 kg/sqft Highest 35%	570 tons Lowest 33%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data