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.)
Max Palevsky 1101 E 56th St	Residence Hall/Dormitory	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	2,003 tons Highest 23%
Louisa May Alcott College Preparatory HS (CPS) 2957 N Hoyne Ave	K-12 School	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	349 tons Lowest 13%
5550 North Kenmore Avenue 5550 N Kenmore Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	1,047 tons Highest 43%
Edward A Bouchet Math & Science Academy ES (CPS) 7355 S Jeffrey Blvd	K-12 School	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	941 tons Highest 47%
John Barry Elementary School (CPS) 2828 N Kilbourn Ave	K-12 School	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	531 tons Lowest 29%
Louisa May Alcott College Preparatory ES (CPS) 2625 N Orchard St	K-12 School	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	475 tons Lowest 25%
120 North LaSalle 120 N LaSalle St	Office	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	3,053 tons Highest 13%
600 N Fairbanks Condo Association 600 N Fairbanks Ct	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	2,538 tons Highest 17%
900/910 Lake Shore Drive 900 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	4,159 tons Highest 9%
1150 Condominium Association 1150 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	1,624 tons Highest 29%
Shoreline Towers 6301 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	2,949 tons Highest 14%
Lofts At Museum Park Condominium Association 1305 S Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	1,819 tons Highest 25%
Residences at RiverBend 333 N Canal St	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	3,282 tons Highest 12%
336 Wellington Association 336 W WELLINGTON AVE	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	910 tons Highest 48%
5455 Edgewater Plaza Condo 5455 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	6.7 kg/sqft Highest 46%	3,465 tons Highest 11%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data