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.

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. 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.

Chicago 2022 CAP

Property Name / address	Primary Property Type	Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO₂ eq./sqft)	Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO₂ eq.)
259 E Erie St 259 E Erie St	Medical Office	13.9 kg/sqft Highest 15%	9,626 tons Highest 7%
600 W Chicago 🚨 600 W Chicago	Office	13.8 kg/sqft Highest 15%	29,599 tons #9 Highest
908 920 W ARGYLE ST 908 920 W ARGYLE ST	Senior Living Community	13.7 kg/sqft Highest 15%	2,011 tons Lowest 49%
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago 1100 E 55TH ST	College/University	13.7 kg/sqft Highest 15%	1,644 tons Lowest 35%
Southpoint Nursing and Rehabilitation Center 1010 W 95TH ST	Senior Living Community	13.6 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,098 tons Lowest 7%
Moody Bible Institute, Crowell Hall 820 N LaSalle St	College/University	13.6 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,402 tons Lowest 24%
City Hall 121 N LaSalle St	Office	13.5 kg/sqft Highest 16%	5,547 tons Highest 13%
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center 🚩 836 W Wellington Ave	Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)	13.5 kg/sqft Highest 16%	17,649 tons #32 Highest
Logan Arts Center 915 E 60th St	Performing Arts	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 16%	2,537 tons Highest 38%
540 W Madison Ave 🚩 540 W Madison	Financial Office	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 16%	16,431 tons #35 Highest
Beth Anne Extended Living 1143-53 N Lavergne	Multifamily Housing	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,073 tons Lowest 5%
SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare / Hampton Inn and Suites Chicago 8101 W Higgins Rd	Hotel	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 16%	2,140 tons Highest 47%
Union League Club Of Chicago 65 W Jackson Blvd	Hotel	13.4 kg/sqft Highest 16%	4,171 tons Highest 20%
500 W Monroe 🚩 500 W Monroe	Office	13.3 kg/sqft Highest 16%	15,317 tons #40 Highest
F.H. Paschen, S.N. Nielsen & Associates, LLC 8734 W Catalpa	Office	13.3 kg/sqft Highest 16%	1,501 tons Lowest 29%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data