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.)
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center 1100 S Hamilton Ave	Mixed Use Property	9.5 kg/sqft Highest 33%	9,742 tons Highest 6%
Thorndale Beach South Condominium Association 5855 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	2,706 tons Highest 35%
640 N LaSalle Dr 640 N LaSalle St	Office	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	2,648 tons Highest 35%
Gentile Arena 🏆 6511 N Sheridan Rd	College/University	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	1,004 tons #2 Lowest in Chicago*
353 N Clark St 🚩 353 N Clark St	Office	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	12,769 tons Highest 4%
Mckay, Francis M -CPS 6929 S Fairfield	K-12 School	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	1,203 tons Lowest 15%
Englewood Academy HS -CPS 6201 S Stewart Ave	K-12 School	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	1,778 tons Lowest 41%
840 Lake Shore Condominium Association 840 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	2,613 tons Highest 36%
7033 N KEDZIE AVE 7033 N KEDZIE AVE	Multifamily Housing	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	3,042 tons Highest 30%
Altgeld Gardens 🚩 925 E 130th St	Multifamily Housing	9.4 kg/sqft Highest 33%	11,064 tons Highest 5%
55 E Monroe 🚩 55 E Monroe St	Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	15,558 tons #37 Highest
550 W Jackson 550 W Jackson Blvd	Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	4,098 tons Highest 20%
The Buckingham Condominium Association 360 E Randolph St	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	4,720 tons Highest 17%
Ellington Elementary -CPS 243 N Parkside Ave	K-12 School	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	1,044 tons Lowest 4%
Grand Blvd Plaza 5401 S WENTWORTH AVE	Strip Mall	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	1,287 tons Lowest 19%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data