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Electrify Chicago

An independent tool for viewing City of Chicago building data

According to the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan(opens in a new tab), 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.

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๐Ÿ“ฐ $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.

Read Our Full Blog Post On Millions in Missed Fines.

Legislative update! ๐ŸŽ‰

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! (opens in a new tab)

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(opens in a new tab). According to the City โ€œAs of 2016, this list includes all commercial, institutional, and residential buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.โ€ 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.)
Ratner Athletics Center
(UChicago)
5530 S Ellis Ave
Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym
18.9 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
3,186 tons
Highest 12%
Jewel Osco, 03296-Foster & Harlem
7342 W Foster Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
18.9 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,457 tons
Highest 32%
The Art Institute of Chicago
๐Ÿšจ ๐Ÿ“ท
111 S Michigan Ave
Museum
18.9 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
19,069 tons
#17 Highest
Chicago Historical Society
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
1601 N Clark Street
Museum
18.8 kg/sqft
5,074 tons
Sheridan Shores Nursing Rehabilitation
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
5838 N. Sheridan Rd.
Senior Care Community
18.8 kg/sqft
943 tons
Costco
2746 N Clybourn Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
18.8 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
2,682 tons
Highest 16%
Riverfront Plaza
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
2647 N Elston Avenue
Strip Mall
18.7 kg/sqft
3,980 tons
Harpo Studios
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
110 N Carpenter
Other - Entertainment/Public Assembly
18.7 kg/sqft
2,480 tons
Integrys Group Division Street Facility
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
1241 West Division Street
Repair Services (Vehicle, Shoe, Locksmith, etc.)
18.7 kg/sqft
2,710 tons
Jewel Osco, 03170-Pulaski & 55th St
5320 S Pulaski Rd
Supermarket/Grocery Store
18.7 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,348 tons
Highest 35%
Presence Resurrection Medical Center
๐Ÿšจ
7435 W Talcott Ave
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
18.7 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
20,493 tons
#12 Highest
Mansueto Library
1100 E 57th St
Library
18.6 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,189 tons
Highest 39%
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
๐Ÿšจ
225 E Chicago Ave
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
18.6 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
24,012 tons
#9 Highest
Shriners Hospital for Children-Chicago
2211 N Oak Park Ave
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
18.6 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
3,652 tons
Highest 10%
United Center
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ
1901 W Madison St
Indoor Arena
18.6 kg/sqft
17,884 tons
Page 10 of 226 (Building #136 to #150)

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)