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.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Center Home For Hispanic Elderly
1401 N California Ave
| Senior Living Community | 8.7 kg/sqft 
Highest 20%
| 654 tons 
Lowest 37%
|
|
Phillip Murray Elementary Academy -CPS
(CPS)
5335 S Kenwood Ave
| K-12 School | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 646 tons
Lowest 37%
|
|
Coles Model For Excellence -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
8441 S Yates Blvd
| K-12 School | 8.7 kg/sqft | 823 tons |
|
Yards Burlington
🕰️
4510 S Damen Ave
| Retail Store | 8.7 kg/sqft | 652 tons |
|
The Versailles
🕰️
5254 S DORCHESTER AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 8.7 kg/sqft | 556 tons |
|
Arthur J. Schmitt Academic Center
(DePaul)
2320 N Kenmore Ave
| College/University | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 1,433 tons
Highest 33%
|
|
Target, Chicago West Loop (2781)
1101 W Jackson Blvd
| Retail Store | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 1,468 tons
Highest 32%
|
|
2301-2305 S Michigan
🕰️
2301-2305 South Michigan Avenue
| Multifamily Housing | 8.7 kg/sqft | 590 tons |
|
Village Market
333 E Benton PL
| Enclosed Mall | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 915 tons
Highest 49%
|
|
Home Depot, #1974 Cicero & Armitage
1919 N Cicero Ave
| Retail Store | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 1,029 tons
Highest 44%
|
|
640 644 N WABASH AVE
640 644 N WABASH AVE
| Hotel | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 547 tons
Lowest 30%
|
|
Red Roof Inn
162 164 E ONTARIO ST
| Hotel | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 670 tons
Lowest 38%
|
|
Water Tower Place
🚨
845 N Michigan Ave
| Mixed Use Property | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 22,501 tons #10 Highest
|
|
Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority
🚨
📷
301 E Cermak Rd
| Convention Center | 8.7 kg/sqft
Highest 20%
| 80,845 tons #3 Highest
|
|
4532 - 42 S. Drexel
🕰️
4532 - 42 S. Drexel Blvd.
| Multifamily Housing | 8.7 kg/sqft | 545 tons |
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data