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.)
Blackwood 5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	1,082 tons Highest 42%
Axis House 441 E Erie St	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	4,190 tons Highest 9%
Arkadia Tower 765 W Adams St	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	2,571 tons Highest 16%
Scio at Medical District Apartments 901 903 S Ashland Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	2,516 tons Highest 17%
Roger C Sullivan High School (CPS) 6631 N Bosworth Ave	K-12 School	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	1,586 tons Highest 30%
Metropolis 8 W Monroe St	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	1,585 tons Highest 30%
55 West Wacker Drive 55 W Wacker Dr	Office	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	2,041 tons Highest 22%
congress plaza hotel 520 S Michigan Ave	Hotel	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	4,364 tons Highest 8%
228 South Wabash Building 228 S Wabash Ave	Office	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	473 tons Lowest 25%
Daily News Condominium Association 222 S RACINE AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	400 tons Lowest 18%
N001845-CHICAGO BRICKYARD 2630 N NARRAGANSETT AVE	Retail Store	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	853 tons Lowest 49%
207-Senior Suites of Ravenswood Manor 2800 W MONTROSE AVE	Senior Living Community	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	467 tons Lowest 24%
Benchmark Sherway Tower LP 4225 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	1,164 tons Highest 39%
230-Senior Suites-Central Station 1400 S INDIANA AVE	Senior Living Community	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	523 tons Lowest 29%
1200 Condominium Association 1200 N LAKE SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	7.3 kg/sqft Highest 36%	700 tons Lowest 41%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data