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.)
1062 West Bryn Mawr Avenue 1062 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	567 tons Lowest 32%
Mary Lyon Elementary School (CPS) 2941 N Mcvicker Ave	K-12 School	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	845 tons Lowest 49%
Irene C. Hernandez Middle School for the Advancement of Science (CPS) 5440 S St Louis Ave	K-12 School	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	918 tons Highest 48%
James Ward Elementary School (CPS) 2701 S Shields Ave	K-12 School	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	616 tons Lowest 36%
Jonathan Burr Elementary School (CPS) 1621 W Wabansia Ave	K-12 School	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	441 tons Lowest 21%
Park Place Tower 1 Condominium Association 🚩 655 W Irving Park Rd	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	7,152 tons Highest 4%
3950 N Lake Shore Drive CA 🚩 3950 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	5,319 tons Highest 6%
El Lago Condominium Association 6157 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,123 tons Highest 21%
340 on the Park 340 E Randolph St	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	5,744 tons Highest 6%
100 E Walton St 100 E Walton St	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,352 tons Highest 18%
Plaza 440 Private Residences 440 N Wabash Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	3,410 tons Highest 11%
(IL0679) The Fordham Condominium 25 E Superior St	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	4,195 tons Highest 9%
Harper Square Housing Co-Op 4800 - 4850 S Lake Park Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	4,531 tons Highest 8%
209 E Lake Shore Drive 209 E LAKE SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,853 tons Highest 25%
888 South Michigan Condominium Association 888 S MICHIGAN AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	573 tons Lowest 33%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data