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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.)
Aunt Martha's Youth Service Center, Inc.
5001 - 5013 S Michigan Ave
Other - Services
8.0 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
483 tons
Lowest 25%
6125 S KENWOOD AVE
6125 S KENWOOD AVE
Senior Living Community
8.0 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
1,031 tons
Highest 44%
1237 W Fullerton Ave
1237 W Fullerton Ave
Multifamily Housing
8.0 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
1,768 tons
Highest 26%
7100 S SOUTH SHORE DR
🕰️
7100 S SOUTH SHORE DR
Multifamily Housing
8.0 kg/sqft
911 tons
The Palmer House Hotel
🚨
17 E Monroe St
Hotel
8.0 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
13,521 tons
#37 Highest
100 N LaSalle
🕰️
100 N LaSalle St
Office
8.0 kg/sqft
1,280 tons
71215A State St
🚩
101 N State St E
Retail Store
8.0 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
14,741 tons
#33 Highest
1555 N ASHLAND AVE
🕰️
1555 N ASHLAND AVE
Hotel
7.9 kg/sqft
618 tons
8647 W Higgins Road
8647 W Higgins Road
Office
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
1,169 tons
Highest 40%
Oakdale Terrace
525 W Oakdale Ave
Multifamily Housing
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
479 tons
Lowest 24%
Armstrong Intl Studies Elementary -CPS
(CPS)
2110 W Greenleaf Ave
K-12 School
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
1,167 tons
Highest 40%
Casals Elementary -CPS
(CPS)
3501 W Potomac Ave
K-12 School
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
527 tons
Lowest 28%
Carnegie Elementary, Andrew -CPS
(CPS)
1414 E 61st Pl
K-12 School
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
509 tons
Lowest 27%
Albert Merritt Billings
🕰️
950 East 59th St
Office
7.9 kg/sqft
3,881 tons
RJ Quinn Academy
558 W De Koven St
Adult Education
7.9 kg/sqft
Highest 27%
525 tons
Lowest 28%
Page 66 of 226 (Building #976 to #990)

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