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 Apartments at Lincoln Common 2345 N Lincoln Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	2,277 tons Highest 44%
East Point Condo Association 6101E N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,926 tons Lowest 46%
International House 🏆 (UChicago) 1414 E 59th St	Residence Hall/Dormitory	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,457 tons Lowest 27%
1100 N Lake Shore Condominium Assn 1100 N LAKESHORE DR	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,387 tons Lowest 24%
161 W HARRISON ST 161 W HARRISON ST	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,029 tons Lowest 3%
Streeterville Center 233 E ERIE ST	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,457 tons Lowest 27%
Prairie Ave Lofts 221 E Cullerton Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,108 tons Lowest 8%
Illinois College of Optometry 3241 S Michigan Ave	College/University	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	2,019 tons Lowest 49%
The Residences at 8 East Huron 8 E Huron St	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,050 tons Lowest 4%
625 N Michigan Ave 625 N Michigan Ave	Office	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	2,176 tons Highest 46%
Minnie Ripperton Apts 4250 S Princeton Ave	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,294 tons Lowest 19%
465 N Park Dr 465 N Park Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	3,268 tons Highest 28%
5040-60 N Marine Dr 5040-5060 N Marine	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	1,431 tons Lowest 26%
3440 North Lakeshore Drive 3440 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	2,219 tons Highest 46%
Daley Center 14 E Jackson Blvd	College/University	6.1 kg/sqft Lowest 21%	2,273 tons Highest 44%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data