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Electrify Chicago

According to the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan(opens in a new tab), 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.

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.

Chicago Buildings by Greenhouse Gas Intensity

Note: Data only includes large Chicago buildings from 2020

Note: This data only includes buildings whose emissions are reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance(opens in a new tab). 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 2020, but when new benchmark data is available, we'll update the site.

Property Name / address Primary Property Type Greenhouse Gas Intensity
(kg CO2 eq./sqft)
Total Greenhouse Emissions
(metric tons CO2 eq.)
Sun Plaza
🏆
4851 - 4887 N Broadway Ave
Strip Mall
16.5 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
1,016 tons
#16 Lowest in Chicago*
McGowan South
(DePaul)
1110 W Belden
College/University
16.5 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
2,108 tons
Highest 48%
Dyett HS -CPS
555 E 51st St
K-12 School
16.4 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
1,980 tons
Lowest 48%
California Gardens Rehabilitation Center
2829 S CALIFORNIA BLVD
Senior Living Community
16.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
1,187 tons
Lowest 14%
Warren Barr Gold Coast
66 W Oak St
Senior Living Community
16.2 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
2,187 tons
Highest 46%
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
🚩
355 E ERIE ST
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
16.2 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
14,188 tons
#46 Highest
The Schatz
610 N FAIRBANKS CT
Retail Store
16.1 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
1,156 tons
Lowest 11%
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
11 E Walton St
Hotel
16.0 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
4,957 tons
Highest 16%
3630 N Clark St
3630 N Clark St
Hotel
15.9 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
2,935 tons
Highest 32%
Midtown Athletic Club
2020 W Fullerton Ave
Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym
15.9 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
3,304 tons
Highest 27%
Rockefeller,Mitchell,Reynolds,Hutchinson,Zoology,Erman,Mandel,Oriental,Pres.Home
5850 S Woodlawn Ave
Museum
15.8 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
1,627 tons
Lowest 34%
Woodson Regional Library
🏆
9525 S Halsted St
Library
15.7 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
1,022 tons
#25 Lowest in Chicago*
University Club of Chicago
76 E Monroe St
Hotel
15.7 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
2,260 tons
Highest 45%
Police Training Academy
1300 W Jackson Blvd
Adult Education
15.5 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
2,796 tons
Highest 33%
Presence SMEMC St Elizabeth Campus
1431 N Claremont Ave
Mixed Use Property
15.5 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
4,780 tons
Highest 17%
Page 11 of 86 (Building #151 to #165)

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)