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.)
Oakley Square Apartments 2325 W JACKSON BLVD	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,203 tons Lowest 15%
Optima Signature Apartments 220 E Illinois St	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	3,753 tons Highest 23%
The Darien Apartments 3100 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,504 tons Lowest 30%
Randolph Place Residences Condominium Association 165 N Canal St	Multifamily Housing	4.3 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	3,187 tons Highest 28%
Smith Senior Living 2320 W 113TH PL	Senior Living Community	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,557 tons Lowest 32%
Steinmetz Academic Center HS -CPS 3030 N Mobile Ave	K-12 School	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,692 tons Lowest 37%
Lane Tech HS -CPS 2501 W Addison St	K-12 School	4.2 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	2,977 tons Highest 31%
3224 3244 N HALSTED ST 3224 3244 N HALSTED ST	Multifamily Housing	4.1 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,112 tons Lowest 8%
River North Commons CA 520 W Huron St	Multifamily Housing	4.1 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,152 tons Lowest 11%
Eddystone Condominium Homes 🏆 415 421 W MELROSE ST	Multifamily Housing	4.1 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	1,009 tons #10 Lowest in Chicago*
Hanover House 🏆 11 21 W GOETHE ST	Multifamily Housing	4.0 kg/sqft #29 Lowest in Chicago*	1,008 tons #7 Lowest in Chicago*
Kelly HS -CPS 🏆 4136 S California Ave	K-12 School	4.0 kg/sqft #29 Lowest in Chicago*	1,206 tons Lowest 15%
Lincoln Park 2550 Condominium Association 🏆 2550 N Lakeview Ave	Multifamily Housing	4.0 kg/sqft #29 Lowest in Chicago*	3,969 tons Highest 22%
Chicago Vocational Career Academy -CPS 🏆 2106 E 87th St	K-12 School	4.0 kg/sqft #29 Lowest in Chicago*	2,718 tons Highest 34%
Ontario Street Lofts CA 🏆 411 W Ontario St	Multifamily Housing	3.9 kg/sqft #24 Lowest in Chicago*	1,023 tons #27 Lowest in Chicago*

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data