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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.)
Symphony Center
220 S Michigan Ave
Performing Arts
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
3,174 tons
Highest 13%
Edith Spurlock Sampson Apts
(CHA)
2720 N Sheffield Ave
Multifamily Housing
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
1,691 tons
Highest 28%
Little Village HS Campus -CPS
(CPS)
3120 S Kostner Ave
K-12 School
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
3,147 tons
Highest 13%
West Side Realty Corporation
1645 W Jackson Blvd
Medical Office
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
1,368 tons
Highest 35%
Home Depot, #1950 Chicago South Loop
1300 S Clinton St
Retail Store
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
1,160 tons
Highest 40%
5041 - North Bridge Block 119 and 120
🕰️
43 E Ohio St
Enclosed Mall
10.8 kg/sqft
4,888 tons
Thompson Center
🕰️
100 W Randolph St
Office
10.8 kg/sqft
12,909 tons
Englewood Academy HS -CPS
(CPS)
6201 S Stewart Ave
K-12 School
10.8 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
2,035 tons
Highest 23%
Chicago Journeymen Plumbers' Local 130, U.A.
1340 W Washington Blvd
Office
10.7 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
545 tons
Lowest 30%
COOK COUNTY CENTRAL CAMPUS HEALTH CENTER
1950 W Polk St
Office
10.7 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
3,031 tons
Highest 14%
Johnson Center for Science and Community Life
5141 N Christiana Ave
College/University
10.7 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
1,080 tons
Highest 43%
Chicago South Loop Hotel
🕰️
11 W. 26th Street
Hotel
10.7 kg/sqft
1,103 tons
Moody Bible Institute, Torrey-Gray Doane
840 N LaSalle St
College/University
10.7 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
926 tons
Highest 48%
Mahalia Jackson Elementary -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
917 W 88th St
K-12 School
10.7 kg/sqft
795 tons
Agassiz Elementary -CPS
(CPS)
2851 N Seminary Ave
K-12 School
10.7 kg/sqft
Highest 11%
617 tons
Lowest 35%
Page 31 of 226 (Building #451 to #465)

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