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.)
333 S Des Plaines 321 339 S DESPLAINES ST	Multifamily Housing	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	1,130 tons Highest 41%
Fairmont Care Center 5061 N PULASKI RD	Senior Living Community	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	630 tons Lowest 37%
600 N. Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association 600 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	5,079 tons Highest 7%
1246 Pratt LLC 1246 1248 W PRATT BLVD	Multifamily Housing	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	411 tons Lowest 19%
640 N LaSalle 640 N LaSalle St	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	1,791 tons Highest 26%
Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes 1336 1352 N SEDGWICK ST	Multifamily Housing	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	3,654 tons Highest 10%
321 N. Clark Property, LLC 321 N Clark St	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	6,207 tons Highest 5%
224 South Michigan Avenue 224 S Michigan Ave	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	2,579 tons Highest 16%
100/150 S. Wacker 150 S Wacker Dr	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	8,060 tons Highest 4%
111 West Jackson 111 W Jackson Blvd	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	4,254 tons Highest 9%
200 West Madison (EPL) 200 W Madison	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	6,338 tons Highest 5%
The Franklin (227 West Monroe; 222 West Adams) 🚩 227 W Monroe	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	18,584 tons #24 Highest
G&A Senior Residence at Ravenswood 1818 W PETERSON	Multifamily Housing	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	687 tons Lowest 40%
Congress Center 525 W Van Buren	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	3,315 tons Highest 12%
211 E. Chicago Ave. 211 E Chicago Ave	Office	6.3 kg/sqft Lowest 47%	2,476 tons Highest 17%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data