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.)
Westinghouse HS -CPS 3301 W Franklin Blvd	K-12 School	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	2,087 tons Highest 49%
936 E 47TH ST 936 E 47TH ST	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	1,269 tons Lowest 18%
Hard Rock Hotel 230 N Michigan Ave	Hotel	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	2,787 tons Highest 33%
The Elm at Clark 1122 N Clark St	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	3,312 tons Highest 27%
5445 Edgewater Plaza Condo Association 5445 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	3,973 tons Highest 22%
Misericordia Home 6300 N Ridge Ave	Mixed Use Property	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	6,641 tons Highest 11%
Harris Bank Building 🚩 115 S LaSalle St	Office	9.3 kg/sqft Highest 34%	14,249 tons #45 Highest
NMH 211 East Ontario 211 E Ontario St	Office	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,727 tons Lowest 39%
303 E Wacker 🏆 303 E Wacker	Office	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	9,381 tons Highest 7%
100 North Riverside Plaza 🏆 100 N Riverside Plz	Office	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	8,082 tons Highest 8%
Target, Bedford Park (0841) 7100 S Cicero Ave	Retail Store	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,158 tons Lowest 12%
Target, T2613 - Chicago Division 1200 N Larrabee St	Retail Store	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,745 tons Lowest 40%
50 E Chestnut St 50 E Chestnut St	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	1,277 tons Lowest 18%
Olive-Harvey College 10001 S Woodlawn Ave	College/University	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	3,641 tons Highest 24%
Lawson Partners 30 W Chicago	Multifamily Housing	9.2 kg/sqft Highest 35%	2,394 tons Highest 41%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data