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.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
105 W MADISON ST
105 W MADISON ST
| Office | 10.3 kg/sqft 
Highest 12%
| 1,445 tons
Highest 33%
|
|
Columbus Plaza
233 E Wacker Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 4,561 tons
Highest 8%
|
|
Freehand Hotel
19 E OHIO ST
| Hotel | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 755 tons 
Lowest 43%
|
|
The Field Museum
🚩
1400 S Lake Shore Dr
| Mixed Use Property | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 13,157 tons #39 Highest
|
|
NBC Tower
🚩
455 N Cityfront Plaza Dr
| Office | 10.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 9,710 tons
Highest 2%
|
|
Abbott
🕰️
947 E 58th St
| Laboratory | 10.3 kg/sqft | 1,063 tons |
|
4747 S DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DR
🕰️
4747 S DR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DR
| Multifamily Housing | 10.2 kg/sqft | 2,505 tons |
|
Centennial Hall
(DePaul)
2345 N Sheffield Ave
| College/University | 10.2 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 908 tons
Highest 49%
|
|
1555 Astor Condo
1555 N Astor St
| Multifamily Housing | 10.2 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 3,149 tons
Highest 13%
|
|
5220 S. Pulaski Road
🕰️
5220 S Pulaski Rd
| Other - Mall | 10.2 kg/sqft | 626 tons |
|
Piper's Alley
230 W North Ave
| Mixed Use Property | 10.2 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 2,237 tons
Highest 20%
|
|
Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy
🕰️
2520 S Western Ave
| K-12 School | 10.2 kg/sqft | 953 tons |
|
St Paul House(2018)
🕰️
3800 N California Avenue
| Senior Care Community | 10.2 kg/sqft | 1,214 tons |
|
Claridge House
1244 N Dearborn St
| Hotel | 10.2 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 857 tons
Lowest 49%
|
|
101 113 W DIVISION ST
101 113 W DIVISION ST
| Multifamily Housing | 10.2 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 590 tons
Lowest 33%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data