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.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Westin Michigan Avenue
909 N Michigan Ave
| Hotel | 10.4 kg/sqft 
Highest 12%
| 5,690 tons
Highest 6%
|
|
The Thompson Building
350 N Clark St
| Office | 10.4 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,153 tons
Highest 40%
|
|
216 E ONTARIO ST
216 E ONTARIO ST
| Hotel | 10.4 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 929 tons
Highest 48%
|
|
Nordstrom #220 Michigan Avenue
🕰️
55 E Grand Ave
| Retail Store | 10.4 kg/sqft | 3,635 tons |
|
Addison Mall
2901 W ADDISON ST
| Strip Mall | 10.4 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 717 tons 
Lowest 41%
|
|
Clemente Community Academy HS -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
1147 N Western Ave
| K-12 School | 10.4 kg/sqft | 3,679 tons |
|
McClurg Court Center
🚩
333 E Ontario St
| Multifamily Housing | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 8,462 tons
Highest 3%
|
|
The Renaissance at Southshore / Symphony South Shore LLC
2425 E 71st St
| Senior Living Community | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 833 tons
Lowest 48%
|
|
Legacy Charter School
🕰️
3300 W OGDEN AVE
| K-12 School | 10.3 kg/sqft | 650 tons |
|
Hurley, Edward N -CPS
(CPS)
3849 W 69th Pl
| K-12 School | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 570 tons
Lowest 32%
|
|
Reid Murdoch Center
315 - 331 N LaSalle St
| Office | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 3,450 tons
Highest 11%
|
|
Fannie Emanuel
(CHA)
3916 W Washington
| Multifamily Housing | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 980 tons
Highest 46%
|
|
Englewood Health Center
(Chicago)
641 W 63rd St
| Outpatient Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 556 tons
Lowest 31%
|
|
Orr Academy HS -CPS
(CPS)
730 N Pulaski Rd
| K-12 School | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 3,137 tons
Highest 13%
|
|
Chicago HS for Agricultural - CPS
(CPS)
3807 W 111th St
| K-12 School | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,977 tons
Highest 23%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data