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.)
Sunnyside Properties, LLC 840 W SUNNYSIDE AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	810 tons Lowest 47%
The Patricians 401 411 W FULLERTON PKWY	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,291 tons Highest 36%
Lake Meadows 7 400 E 33rd St	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	2,074 tons Highest 22%
AMLI 900 900 S Clark St	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	3,132 tons Highest 13%
Hilliard Homes Phase II Limited Partnership (Family) 2030 S State St	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,190 tons Highest 39%
Lakeview East Cooperative 707 W Waveland Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,597 tons Highest 29%
1350-60 N LSD 1350 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	4,975 tons Highest 7%
Illinois Institute of Technology- DTC (Illinois Tech) 565 W Adams St	College/University	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,932 tons Highest 24%
Folio Square Condominium Association 124 W POLK ST	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	730 tons Lowest 43%
One East 15th Place Condominium 1529 S STATE ST	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	1,275 tons Highest 37%
Plaisance Apartments 6104 6110 S WOODLAWN AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	389 tons Lowest 17%
MooGoong Terrace 4848 N KEDZIE AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	377 tons Lowest 15%
1415 North Dearborn Condominium Association 1415 N DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	877 tons Lowest 50%
Wrightwood II LLC 443 447 W WRIGHTWOOD AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	616 tons Lowest 36%
Dearborn Plaza (CHA) 1030 1032 N DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	6.8 kg/sqft Highest 44%	538 tons Lowest 30%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data