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.)
Mallers Building LLC 5 S Wabash Ave	Enclosed Mall	6.9 kg/sqft Highest 42%	2,166 tons Highest 20%
123 N Wacker 123 N Wacker	Office	6.9 kg/sqft Highest 42%	3,826 tons Highest 10%
RICHARD J. DALEY CENTER 🚩 50 W Washington	Courthouse	6.9 kg/sqft Highest 42%	10,570 tons Highest 2%
Spring Grove Apartments 4554 S DREXEL BLVD	Multifamily Housing	6.9 kg/sqft Highest 42%	619 tons Lowest 36%
Museum Walk Apartments 5541 S EVERETT AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	520 tons Lowest 28%
Leslie Shankman School Corporation Building 6245 S INGLESIDE AVE	K-12 School	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	506 tons Lowest 27%
Campus North Residential Commons (UChicago) 5500 S UNIVERSITY AVE	Residence Hall/Dormitory	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	2,862 tons Highest 14%
Lycee Francais de Chicago 1929 W WILSON AVE	K-12 School	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	591 tons Lowest 34%
901 S Plymouth 901 S Plymouth Ct	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,096 tons Highest 42%
Workshop 4200 4200 W Diversey Ave	Other	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	962 tons Highest 46%
HRTL - Town Hall: 3600 N Halsted 3600 N Halsted St	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	623 tons Lowest 37%
Silver Coast Citadel Condominium Association 7201-09 S Yates Blvd	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	688 tons Lowest 41%
CICS Wrightwood 8130 S California Ave	K-12 School	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	367 tons Lowest 15%
1309 N Wells 1309 N Wells St	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	791 tons Lowest 46%
South Shore Intl College Prep High School (CPS) 1955 E 75th St	K-12 School	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,443 tons Highest 32%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data