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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.)
229 235 E LAKE SHORE DR
229 235 E LAKE SHORE DR
Multifamily Housing
4.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 20%
437 tons
Lowest 20%
1660 N HUDSON AVE
1660 N HUDSON AVE
Multifamily Housing
4.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 20%
325 tons
Lowest 10%
Merchandise Mart
🚩 📷
222 Merchandise Mart Plz
Office
4.7 kg/sqft
Lowest 20%
19,236 tons
#15 Highest
Marshall Metro HS -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
3250 W Adams St
K-12 School
4.7 kg/sqft
1,733 tons
2300 2320 N COMMONWEALTH AVE
2300 2320 N COMMONWEALTH AVE
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
259 tons
Lowest 5%
4424 S COTTAGE GROVE AVE
4424 S COTTAGE GROVE AVE
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
260 tons
Lowest 5%
Upshore Chapter
🕰️
4555 N SHERIDAN RD
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
592 tons
Englewood STEM High School
6835 S Normal Blvd
K-12 School
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
729 tons
Lowest 42%
One Bennet Park Apartments
451 E Grand Ave
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
3,648 tons
Highest 10%
1616 E 56Th St
1616 E 56Th St
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
1,552 tons
Highest 30%
311 W Illinois St
311 W Illinois St
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
1,337 tons
Highest 36%
Marlowe Chicago
675 N Wells St
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
697 tons
Lowest 40%
4631
🕰️
4631-37 S. Lake Park
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
266 tons
367 W LOCUST ST
367 W LOCUST ST
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
417 tons
Lowest 18%
Old Town Midrise Condo
343 W Old Town Court
Multifamily Housing
4.6 kg/sqft
Lowest 18%
412 tons
Lowest 18%
Page 183 of 226 (Building #2731 to #2745)

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