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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.

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.

Read Our Full Blog Post On Millions in Missed Fines.

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! (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 “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.)
Romanian Village
5161 N ASHLAND AVE
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
473 tons
Lowest 23%
1338 1354 W ARGYLE ST
1338 1354 W ARGYLE ST
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
349 tons
Lowest 12%
University Center Chicago
525 S State St
Other - Lodging/Residential
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
4,752 tons
Highest 7%
Evangeline Booth Lodge / Family and Community Services
🕰️
800 W Lawrence Ave
Hotel
6.8 kg/sqft
483 tons
77 West Huron Street
🕰️
77 W Huron St
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
2,120 tons
GX Master Tenant
2545 W Diversey Ave
Office
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
1,537 tons
Highest 31%
Regents Park
🚩
5020 - 5050 S Lake Shore Dr
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
9,858 tons
Highest 2%
Promontory Apartments
🕰️
5530 S SHORE DR
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
1,231 tons
623 S Wabash Ave
623 S Wabash Ave
College/University
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
1,397 tons
Highest 34%
33 West Monroe
33 W Monroe St
Office
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
7,338 tons
Highest 4%
500 514 S LARAMIE AVE
500 514 S LARAMIE AVE
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
342 tons
Lowest 12%
124 W POLK ST
124 W POLK ST
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
737 tons
Lowest 42%
Dearborn Station
47 W Polk St
Other
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
988 tons
Highest 45%
Plaisance Apartments
🕰️
6104 6110 S WOODLAWN AVE
Multifamily Housing
6.8 kg/sqft
389 tons
444 N WABASH AVE
444 N WABASH AVE
Office
6.8 kg/sqft
Highest 43%
392 tons
Lowest 16%
Page 101 of 226 (Building #1501 to #1515)

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