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.)
244 E Pearson LLC 244 E Pearson St	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	1,036 tons Highest 44%
300 North LaSalle 🚩 300 N LaSalle St	Office	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	10,658 tons Highest 2%
1440 N Lake Shore Drive 1440 N LAKESHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	2,176 tons Highest 20%
River Plaza 405 N Wabash Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	5,197 tons Highest 7%
1620 S. Michigan Ave Condo Association 1620 S Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	1,796 tons Highest 26%
1212 Lake Shore Drive Condominium 1212 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	2,710 tons Highest 15%
201 E Chestnut 201 E Chestnut St	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	1,432 tons Highest 33%
808-12 Junior Terrace LLC 808 812 W JUNIOR TER	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	544 tons Lowest 31%
East Wrigleyview Village 737 W CORNELIA AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	362 tons Lowest 14%
Chatham Park South Co-Op 660 E 85TH ST	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	534 tons Lowest 30%
5316 S Dorchester 5316 5320 S DORCHESTER AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	378 tons Lowest 16%
The Covington 4600 N CLARENDON AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	969 tons Highest 46%
Kingsbaker Court 900 910 W VANBUREN ST	Office	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	543 tons Lowest 30%
2750 W Roosevelt Rd 2750 W ROOSEVELT	Residence Hall/Dormitory	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	868 tons Lowest 50%
The Kimpton Gray Hotel 39 S LaSalle St	Hotel	7.1 kg/sqft Highest 39%	1,700 tons Highest 28%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data