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.)
Park Hyatt Chicago 800 N Michigan Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.7 kg/sqft Highest 26%	7,268 tons Highest 9%
York Terrace Apts. 2701 S Indiana Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.7 kg/sqft Highest 26%	2,498 tons Highest 39%
National Teachers Academy -CPS 55 W Cermak Rd	K-12 School	10.6 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,654 tons Lowest 36%
Chicago HS for Agricultural - CPS 3807 W 111th St	K-12 School	10.6 kg/sqft Highest 26%	2,043 tons Lowest 50%
437 W DIVISION ST 437 W DIVISION ST	Multifamily Housing	10.6 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,162 tons Lowest 12%
Horizon Realty Group 5650 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	10.6 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,340 tons Lowest 21%
Parkway Gardens 🚩 6415 S Calumet Ave	Multifamily Housing	10.6 kg/sqft Highest 26%	9,961 tons Highest 6%
Marillac St. Vincent Family Services 212 S Francisco Ave	Pre-school/Daycare	10.5 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,097 tons Lowest 7%
1040 W GRANVILLE AVE 1040 W GRANVILLE AVE	Multifamily Housing	10.5 kg/sqft Highest 26%	1,467 tons Lowest 28%
Columbus Plaza 233 E Wacker Dr	Multifamily Housing	10.5 kg/sqft Highest 26%	4,662 tons Highest 18%
Brooks Homes 1324 S Loomis St	Multifamily Housing	10.5 kg/sqft Highest 26%	2,947 tons Highest 32%
Clemente Community Academy HS -CPS 1147 N Western Ave	K-12 School	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 27%	3,679 tons Highest 24%
2630 N NARRAGANSETT AVE 2630 N NARRAGANSETT AVE	Retail Store	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 27%	1,217 tons Lowest 15%
CDM Center 243 S Wabash Ave	College/University	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 27%	1,912 tons Lowest 45%
30 N Michigan Ave 30 N Michigan Ave	Office	10.4 kg/sqft Highest 27%	2,307 tons Highest 43%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data