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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.)
Southland Preservation
🕰️
6253 S MICHIGAN AVE
Multifamily Housing
9.0 kg/sqft
1,711 tons
Simpson Living Learning Center-ID# 254167
🕰️
(Loyola)
6333 N Winthrop Ave
Residence Hall/Dormitory
8.9 kg/sqft
1,042 tons
Safer Foundation
🕰️
3210 W Arthington St
Prison/Incarceration
8.9 kg/sqft
1,137 tons
Talbott Hotel
20 E Delaware Pl
Hotel
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
947 tons
Highest 47%
Sherman Elementary, William T -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
1000 W 52nd St
K-12 School
8.9 kg/sqft
521 tons
Delano Elementary, Edward C -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
3937 W Wilcox St
K-12 School
8.9 kg/sqft
887 tons
Sumner Math & Science Community Acad, Charles -CPS
🕰️
(CPS)
4320 W 5th Ave
K-12 School
8.9 kg/sqft
764 tons
Little Village Academy -CPS
(CPS)
2620 S Lawndale Ave
K-12 School
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
659 tons
Lowest 38%
860 N Lake Shore Drive Trust
860 N Lake Shore Dr
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
3,049 tons
Highest 14%
William C Jones Apts
(CHA)
1447 S Ashland Ave
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
577 tons
Lowest 32%
3100 S KING DR
3100 S KING DR
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
579 tons
Lowest 32%
1029-51 W North Shore LLC
🕰️
1029-51 W. North Shore Ave.
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
584 tons
Manhattan Building
423 439 S DEARBORN ST
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
1,075 tons
Highest 43%
W Chicago Lakeshore
644 N Lakeshore Dr
Hotel
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
3,391 tons
Highest 11%
Lake Meadows 9
501 E 32nd St
Multifamily Housing
8.9 kg/sqft
Highest 19%
2,720 tons
Highest 16%
Page 50 of 226 (Building #736 to #750)

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