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.)
MLL 1945 Wilson, LLC 1945 W WILSON AVE	Mixed Use Property	6.6 kg/sqft Highest 47%	449 tons Lowest 22%
191 North Wacker 191 N Wacker Dr	Office	6.6 kg/sqft Highest 47%	5,148 tons Highest 7%
77 West Wacker Drive 77 W Wacker Dr	Office	6.6 kg/sqft Highest 47%	7,570 tons Highest 4%
O'Hare Plaza I 8725- 8745 W Higgins Rd	Office	6.6 kg/sqft Highest 47%	3,559 tons Highest 11%
Woodlawn - University of Chicago 1156 E 61ST ST	Residence Hall/Dormitory	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	2,488 tons Highest 17%
Oriole Park Elementary School 5424 N Oketo Avenue	K-12 School	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	495 tons Lowest 26%
Marquee at Block 37 25 West Randolph Street	Multifamily Housing	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	3,819 tons Highest 10%
Aberdeen 171 N Aberdeen St	Mixed Use Property	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	1,008 tons Highest 45%
1000 S Clark (ks50) 1000 S CLARK ST	Multifamily Housing	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	2,918 tons Highest 14%
3205 W. Carmen Ave. 3205 W Carmen Ave	College/University	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	431 tons Lowest 20%
Newberry Park Apartments 1353 & 1357 S Blue Island Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	658 tons Lowest 39%
Plaza On Dewitt Condominium Association 260 E Chestnut St	Multifamily Housing	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	2,798 tons Highest 15%
Suder Montessori Magnet ES (CPS) 2022 W Washington Blvd	K-12 School	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	464 tons Lowest 24%
Calmeca Academy of Fine Arts and Dual Language (CPS) 3456 W 38th Street	K-12 School	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	710 tons Lowest 42%
Mariano Azuela Elementary School (CPS) 4707 W Marquette Rd	K-12 School	6.5 kg/sqft Highest 49%	616 tons Lowest 36%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data