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.)
The Belden (tb28) 2300 N Lincoln Park West	Multifamily Housing	3.0 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	812 tons Lowest 47%
Hawthorne Point 1511-1525 W Cullom Ave	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	162 tons Lowest 1%
900-10 W Winona 🏆 900-10 W Winona Street	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	148 tons #22 Lowest in Chicago*
Oakwood Court 6547 N Harlem Avenue	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	326 tons Lowest 11%
The Strand 6321 S Cottage Grove Ave	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	254 tons Lowest 5%
3033 Sheridan Tower Condominium Association 3033 N Sheridan Rd	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	808 tons Lowest 47%
1369 E Hyde Park Blvd 1369 E HYDE PARK BLVD	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	198 tons Lowest 2%
OAKWOOD CHICAGO RIVER NORTH 220 W Illinois St	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	483 tons Lowest 26%
1606 1624 W Granville Ave / 6200 6248 N Clark St / 1605 1623 Thome Ave 6200 6248 N CLARK ST	Multifamily Housing	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	588 tons Lowest 34%
Kane Family Limited Partnership c/o Realty Mortgage Co. (346 N. Justine St.) 346 N Justine St	Office	2.9 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	262 tons Lowest 6%
La Plaza Hubbard 1812, LLC 1812 - 1840 W Hubbard St	Mixed Use Property	2.8 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	340 tons Lowest 12%
OurLadyofVictory_School 🏆 5212 W Agatite	K-12 School	2.8 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	172 tons Lowest 2%
James N Thorp Elementary School (CPS) 8914 S Buffalo Ave	K-12 School	2.8 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	386 tons Lowest 17%
954 W Washington Blvd 954 W Washington Blvd	Office	2.8 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	386 tons Lowest 16%
Irving Park Terrace Condo Association 7707 W IRVING PARK RD	Multifamily Housing	2.8 kg/sqft Lowest 3%	223 tons Lowest 4%

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data