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.)
Venetian Condominium Assoc. 222 232 W DIVISION ST	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	1,124 tons Lowest 9%
5040 5060 N BROADWAY 5040 5060 N BROADWAY	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	2,117 tons Highest 48%
Parc Huron 469 West Huron St	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	1,777 tons Lowest 41%
Kenmore Plaza Tenant Association 5225 N Kenmore Ave	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	1,342 tons Lowest 22%
727 W Madison St 727 W Madison St	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	3,486 tons Highest 25%
Park Alexandria Condominium Association 125 S Jefferson St	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	2,073 tons Lowest 50%
120 S LaSalle St 120 S LaSalle St	Office	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	3,773 tons Highest 23%
North Water Apartments & Loews Chicago Hotel 340 E North Water St	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	4,316 tons Highest 19%
1550 CA 1550 N Lake Shore Dr	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	1,814 tons Lowest 42%
Presidential Towers 🚩 555 W Madison St	Multifamily Housing	5.0 kg/sqft Lowest 8%	13,672 tons #47 Highest
2626 Lakeview Condominium 2626 N Lakeview Ave	Multifamily Housing	4.9 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	3,831 tons Highest 23%
Alta Roosevelt 801 S Financial Place	Multifamily Housing	4.9 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	3,074 tons Highest 30%
25 E Washington 25 E Washington St	Office	4.9 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	2,380 tons Highest 41%
1000 W Washington Blvd 1000 W Washington Blvd	Multifamily Housing	4.9 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	1,626 tons Lowest 34%
Pullman Wheelworks Apartments 901 E 104th St	Multifamily Housing	4.9 kg/sqft Lowest 7%	1,449 tons Lowest 27%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data