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.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
340 E Superior Street
(Northwestern)
340 E Superior Street
| College/University | 12.6 kg/sqft 
Highest 7%
| 2,366 tons
Highest 19%
|
|
Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center
1250 W 119th St
| Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym | 12.6 kg/sqft
Highest 7%
| 1,999 tons
Highest 23%
|
|
Marriott Chicago at Medical District/UIC
625 S Ashland Ave
| Hotel | 12.6 kg/sqft
Highest 7%
| 904 tons
Highest 49%
|
|
Hostelling International Chicago, The J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Hostel
24 E Congress Pkwy
| Hotel | 12.6 kg/sqft
Highest 7%
| 1,271 tons
Highest 37%
|
|
Illinois Center Lakeshore Athletic Club
211 N STETSON AVE
| Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym | 12.6 kg/sqft
Highest 7%
| 1,492 tons
Highest 31%
|
|
Aperion Care International
4815 S Western Blvd
| Senior Living Community | 12.5 kg/sqft
Highest 8%
| 1,140 tons
Highest 41%
|
|
Gateway Centre
1701 - 1741 W Howard St
| Strip Mall | 12.5 kg/sqft
Highest 8%
| 835 tons 
Lowest 48%
|
|
19 South LaSalle Building
🕰️
19 South LaSalle
| Office | 12.5 kg/sqft | 2,018 tons |
|
Chicago-Central
🕰️
4058 W Melrose St
| Other - Specialty Hospital | 12.5 kg/sqft | 1,489 tons |
|
4346 N HONORE ST
4346 N HONORE ST
| Multifamily Housing | 12.4 kg/sqft
Highest 8%
| 507 tons
Lowest 27%
|
|
Hope College Preparatory High School
🕰️
(CPS)
5515 South Lowe Ave
| K-12 School | 12.4 kg/sqft | 1,984 tons |
|
Hampton Inn Chicago Downtown/N Loop/Michigan Ave
🕰️
68 East Wacker Place
| Hotel | 12.4 kg/sqft | 1,062 tons |
|
Riverpoint Owner, LLC
1730 W Fullerton Ave
| Strip Mall | 12.4 kg/sqft
Highest 8%
| 2,619 tons
Highest 17%
|
|
909 W WASHINGTON BLVD
909 W WASHINGTON BLVD
| Multifamily Housing | 12.4 kg/sqft
Highest 8%
| 1,136 tons
Highest 41%
|
|
7914 7932 S WABASH AVE
🕰️
7914 7932 S WABASH AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 12.4 kg/sqft | 375 tons |
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data