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.
The City Of Chicago failed to collect $30 million in potential fines from the building benchmarking ordinance, reducing transparency and accountability.
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!
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.) |
---|---|---|---|
Southland Preservation
🕰️
6253 S MICHIGAN AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 9.0 kg/sqft | 1,711 tons |
Simpson Living Learning Center-ID# 254167
🕰️
(Loyola)
6333 N Winthrop Ave
| Residence Hall/Dormitory | 8.9 kg/sqft | 1,042 tons |
Safer Foundation
🕰️
3210 W Arthington St
| Prison/Incarceration | 8.9 kg/sqft | 1,137 tons |
Talbott Hotel
20 E Delaware Pl
| Hotel | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 947 tons
Highest 47%
|
Sherman Elementary, William T -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
1000 W 52nd St
| K-12 School | 8.9 kg/sqft | 521 tons |
Delano Elementary, Edward C -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
3937 W Wilcox St
| K-12 School | 8.9 kg/sqft | 887 tons |
Sumner Math & Science Community Acad, Charles -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
4320 W 5th Ave
| K-12 School | 8.9 kg/sqft | 764 tons |
Little Village Academy -CPS
(CPS)
2620 S Lawndale Ave
| K-12 School | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 659 tons
Lowest 38%
|
860 N Lake Shore Drive Trust
860 N Lake Shore Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 3,049 tons
Highest 14%
|
William C Jones Apts
(CHA)
1447 S Ashland Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 577 tons
Lowest 32%
|
3100 S KING DR
3100 S KING DR
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 579 tons
Lowest 32%
|
1029-51 W North Shore LLC
🕰️
1029-51 W. North Shore Ave.
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft | 584 tons |
Manhattan Building
423 439 S DEARBORN ST
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 1,075 tons
Highest 43%
|
W Chicago Lakeshore
644 N Lakeshore Dr
| Hotel | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 3,391 tons
Highest 11%
|
Lake Meadows 9
501 E 32nd St
| Multifamily Housing | 8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
| 2,720 tons
Highest 16%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data