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.)
North Lawndale College Prep Charter, Collins - CPS 1313 S Sacramento Blvd	K-12 School	11.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,409 tons Highest 40%
6125 S KENWOOD AVE 6125 S KENWOOD AVE	Senior Living Community	11.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	1,504 tons Lowest 30%
860 N DEWITT PL 860 N DEWITT PL	Multifamily Housing	11.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	1,455 tons Lowest 27%
Burnham Pointe 730 South Clark Street	Multifamily Housing	11.7 kg/sqft Highest 21%	5,006 tons Highest 16%
Harper Court 5235 S Harper Ct	Office	11.6 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,686 tons Highest 35%
Student Center (DePaul) 2250 N Sheffield Ave	College/University	11.6 kg/sqft Highest 21%	1,736 tons Lowest 40%
Garland Building 111 N Wabash Ave	Office	11.6 kg/sqft Highest 21%	3,016 tons Highest 30%
29 E. Madison LLC 29 E Madison St	Office	11.6 kg/sqft Highest 21%	2,795 tons Highest 33%
401 S Clinton St 401 S Clinton St	Office	11.5 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,878 tons Lowest 44%
The Woodlands of Bronzeville Condominium Association 619 645 E WOODLAND PARK	Multifamily Housing	11.5 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,174 tons Lowest 13%
223 Jackson Brooks Building LLC 223 W Jackson Blvd	Office	11.5 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,927 tons Lowest 46%
Chicago Transit Authority - 120 N. Racine 120 N Racine Ave	Office	11.5 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,443 tons Lowest 26%
Lake Shore Tower Apartments 5600 N SHERIDAN RD	Multifamily Housing	11.5 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,150 tons Lowest 11%
60 E 36TH PL 60 E 36TH PL	Multifamily Housing	11.4 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,065 tons Lowest 5%
The Thompson Building 350 N Clark St	Office	11.4 kg/sqft Highest 22%	1,264 tons Lowest 18%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data