Electrify Chicago
An independent tool for viewing City of Chicago building data
According to the
2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan
,
69% of Chicago's emissions come from buildings, making
building emissions our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity as a city
to tackle climate change. At Electrify Chicago, we showcase building performance using
publicly available data supplemented by community-submitted photographs and building
owners.
Start by looking at Chicago's buildings with the highest greenhouse gas intensity i.e. emissions per square foot. Large, efficient, buildings can perform much better than very inefficient small buildings on this metric.
New Article
📰 $30 Million In Missed Fines
The City Of Chicago failed to collect $30 million in potential fines from the building benchmarking ordinance, reducing transparency and accountability.
Legislative update! 🎉
As of late January 2024, legislation is being introduced to require new use more efficient forms of water and space heating, via the Clean And Affordable Buildings Ordinance (CABO), which will reduce the number of highly polluting and inefficient buildings that end up on this site.
If you're in Chicago,
write to your alderman to support the CABO!
Chicago Buildings by Greenhouse Gas Intensity
Note: Data includes large Chicago buildings with data from 2022, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
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.
The latest year of data is from 2022, but we update the site regularly when new data is available, and some buildings may have failed to report that year, and only have older data available.
| Property Name / address | Primary Property Type |
Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO2 eq./sqft) |
Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO2 eq.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
3440 North Lakeshore Drive
3440 N Lake Shore Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft 
Lowest 37%
| 2,072 tons 
Highest 22%
|
|
1201 1213 W LELAND AVE
1201 1213 W LELAND AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 430 tons
Lowest 20%
|
|
Forman Mills/Espace
🕰️
1450 N Cicero Ave
| Other - Mall | 5.7 kg/sqft | 496 tons |
|
629 Cermak/2215 Ford
🕰️
629 W Cermak Rd
| Office | 5.7 kg/sqft | 606 tons |
|
The Lofts at Gin Alley
🕰️
120 N Green St
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft | 381 tons |
|
910 W LAWRENCE AVE
910 W LAWRENCE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 514 tons
Lowest 28%
|
|
1617 1633 W BELMONT AVE
1617 1633 W BELMONT AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 322 tons
Lowest 10%
|
|
3240 N ASHLAND AVE
3240 N ASHLAND AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 1,011 tons
Highest 44%
|
|
5200 S ELLIS AVE
5200 S ELLIS AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 696 tons
Lowest 40%
|
|
1949 1959 E 71ST ST
1949 1959 E 71ST ST
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 295 tons
Lowest 8%
|
|
6334 6344 N SHERIDAN RD
6334 6344 N SHERIDAN RD
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 359 tons
Lowest 13%
|
|
Black Ensemble Theater
🕰️
4450 N Clark St
| Performing Arts | 5.7 kg/sqft | 307 tons |
|
230 E Ohio St
230 E Ohio St
| Office | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 404 tons
Lowest 17%
|
|
Chestnut Place Apartments
850 N State St
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 1,474 tons
Highest 32%
|
|
Caroline Hedger Apartment
(CHA)
6400 N Sherdian Rd
| Multifamily Housing | 5.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 37%
| 1,457 tons
Highest 32%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data