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.)
311 S Wacker 🚩 311 S Wacker	Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	10,757 tons Highest 5%
Illinois Masonic Medical Office Center 3000 N HALSTED ST	Medical Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,075 tons Lowest 5%
142 E Ontario St 142 E Ontario St	Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,056 tons Lowest 4%
Presidents Plaza 2 🏆 8700 W Bryn Mawr Ave	Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	3,323 tons Highest 27%
The Bristol Condominium Association 57 E Delaware Pl	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	3,657 tons Highest 24%
1250 N Dearborn Condominium Association 1250 N DEARBORN ST	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,105 tons Lowest 8%
65 E SCOTT ST 65 E SCOTT ST	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,629 tons Lowest 35%
765 W Adams St 765 W Adams St	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	2,627 tons Highest 36%
Chicago Temple Building 77 W Washington	Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,795 tons Lowest 42%
4600 N CLARENDON AVE 🏆 4600 N CLARENDON AVE	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,020 tons #23 Lowest
Chicago Triplex 515 N Clark St	Hotel	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	2,580 tons Highest 37%
William Castleman Apartments 🏆 4945 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	1,118 tons Lowest 8%
600 N Fairbanks Condo Association 600 N Fairbanks Ct	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	2,863 tons Highest 33%
300 South Wacker Property LLC 300 S Wacker Dr	Office	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	4,487 tons Highest 19%
Museum Tower Residences Condo Association 1335 S Prairie Ave	Multifamily Housing	7.5 kg/sqft Lowest 46%	2,707 tons Highest 35%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data