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.)
232-Senior Suites of Washington Heights 832 890 W 103RD ST	Senior Living Community	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	472 tons Lowest 24%
Belle Plaine Apartments 820 W Belle Plaine Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,714 tons Highest 28%
The Van der Rohe 2933 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,391 tons Highest 34%
DT Chicago Magnificent Mile, IL-SV 300 E Ohio St	Hotel	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	3,054 tons Highest 13%
Astor House 1340 N Astor St	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,489 tons Highest 32%
ARC at Old Colony (rt71) 407 415 S DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,435 tons Highest 33%
CP2, LLC 225 W Hubbard St	Other	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	394 tons Lowest 17%
Dearborn Station 47 W Polk St	Other	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,053 tons Highest 43%
209 W. Jackson 209 W Jackson Blvd	Office	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,187 tons Highest 39%
228-Senior Suites of South Shore 2355 E 67TH ST	Senior Living Community	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	515 tons Lowest 28%
4880 Marine Drive Condominium 4880 N MARINE DR	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	510 tons Lowest 28%
1418 North Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association 1418 N LAKE SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	691 tons Lowest 41%
540 W. Briar 532 542 W BRIAR PL	Multifamily Housing	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	609 tons Lowest 35%
Federal Railroad Retirement Board-City Benchmark 844 W Rush St	Office	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,770 tons Highest 15%
One Magnificent Mile 980 N Michigan Ave	Mixed Use Property	7.2 kg/sqft Highest 38%	7,378 tons Highest 4%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data