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.)
The Tides at Lakeshore East 360 E South Water St	Multifamily Housing	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	3,775 tons Highest 23%
Chicago Swissotel 323 E Wacker Dr	Hotel	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	5,533 tons Highest 13%
222 South Riverside Plaza 222 S Riverside Plz	Office	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	9,696 tons Highest 7%
One Superior Place 1 W Superior St	Multifamily Housing	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	5,135 tons Highest 15%
Harper Square Cooperative 4800 - 4850 S Lake Park Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	4,872 tons Highest 16%
Commonwealth Plaza Condominium Association 330 W Diversey Pkwy	Multifamily Housing	7.8 kg/sqft Highest 49%	3,932 tons Highest 22%
33 West Monroe 33 W Monroe St	Office	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	8,344 tons Highest 8%
One Magnificent Mile 980 N Michigan Ave	Mixed Use Property	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	7,871 tons Highest 8%
Max Palevsky Residential Commons/Bartlett Commons 1101 E 56th St	Residence Hall/Dormitory	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	2,297 tons Highest 43%
Saieh Hall for Economics 🏆 (UChicago) 5757 S University Ave	College/University	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	1,172 tons Lowest 13%
Michigan Plaza 🚩 205 N Michigan Ave	Office	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	15,937 tons #36 Highest
GX Master Tenant 2545 W Diversey Ave	Office	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	1,744 tons Lowest 40%
5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE 5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	1,146 tons Lowest 10%
Armstrong Intl Studies Elementary -CPS 2110 W Greenleaf Ave	K-12 School	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	1,130 tons Lowest 9%
6250 6258 S PARK SHORE EAST CT 6250 6258 S PARK SHORE EAST CT	Multifamily Housing	7.7 kg/sqft Lowest 50%	1,160 tons Lowest 12%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data