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.)
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority 🚨 📷 301 Cermak Rd	Convention Center	8.3 kg/sqft Highest 42%	76,935 tons #4 Highest
111 S Wacker 111 S Wacker	Office	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	10,270 tons Highest 6%
20 S Clark 20 S Clark St	Office	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	3,830 tons Highest 23%
203 N LaSalle St 203 N LaSalle St	Office	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	5,430 tons Highest 14%
Two North Riverside Plaza 2 N Riverside Plz	Office	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	6,050 tons Highest 12%
Former Coyne College 330 N Green St	Office	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	4,581 tons Highest 18%
Uplift Community HS -CPS 900 W Wilson Ave	K-12 School	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,227 tons Lowest 16%
Target, Chicago McKinley Park (2078) 1940 W 33rd St	Retail Store	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,138 tons Lowest 10%
Corliss HS -CPS 821 E 103rd St	K-12 School	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	2,237 tons Highest 45%
1240 N LAKE SHORE DR 1240 N LAKE SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,241 tons Lowest 17%
Fletcher Jones Audi 949 N ELSTON AVE	Automobile Dealership	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,983 tons Lowest 48%
740 W FULTON ST 740 W FULTON ST	Multifamily Housing	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,355 tons Lowest 22%
Sixty Forty North Wells 640 N Wells	Multifamily Housing	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,766 tons Lowest 41%
340 on the Park 340 E Randolph St	Multifamily Housing	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	6,544 tons Highest 11%
The Townhouse Apartments 7022 S SOUTH SHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	8.2 kg/sqft Highest 43%	1,065 tons Lowest 5%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data