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.)
Malcolm X College & School of Health Sciences 1900 W JACKSON BLVD	College/University	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	4,774 tons Highest 17%
Bel Harbour Condominium Association 420 W BELMONT AVE	Multifamily Housing	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	1,905 tons Lowest 45%
Winston Towers II 6833 N Kedzie Ave	Multifamily Housing	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	2,304 tons Highest 43%
The Residences at Joffrey Tower Condo Association 8 E Randolph St	Multifamily Housing	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	3,609 tons Highest 24%
Willis Tower 🚨 📷 233 S Wacker Dr	Office	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	43,675 tons #8 Highest
111 E Wacker Dr 111 E Wacker Dr	Office	8.8 kg/sqft Highest 37%	9,984 tons Highest 6%
The Silversmith Hotel & Suites 10 S Wabash Ave	Hotel	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,178 tons Lowest 13%
Fullerton Plaza 1737 - 1829 W Fullerton Ave	Retail Store	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,066 tons Lowest 5%
Gateway West Loop Apartments 11 S Green St	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,159 tons Lowest 12%
W Chicago Lakeshore 644 N Lakeshore Dr	Hotel	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	3,333 tons Highest 27%
550 St. Clair Condominiums 550 N St Clair St	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	1,483 tons Lowest 29%
Gold Coast Galleria 111 W Maple St	Mixed Use Property	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	4,030 tons Highest 21%
Kennedy HS / Kinzie ES -CPS 6325 W 56th St	K-12 School	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,037 tons Lowest 50%
United Winthrop Tower Cooperative 4848 N Winthrop Ave	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,174 tons Highest 46%
Eliot House Condominium Association 1255 N Sandburg Ter	Multifamily Housing	8.7 kg/sqft Highest 38%	2,733 tons Highest 34%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data