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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.)
2701 2741 N LEAVITT ST
2701 2741 N LEAVITT ST
Multifamily Housing
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
501 tons
Lowest 27%
443 447 W WRIGHTWOOD AVE
443 447 W WRIGHTWOOD AVE
Multifamily Housing
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
641 tons
Lowest 36%
Grenada
🕰️
525 W Arlington Pl
Multifamily Housing
7.1 kg/sqft
500 tons
LaSalle-Wacker Building
221 N LaSalle St
Office
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
2,983 tons
Highest 14%
Commonwealth Plaza Condominium Association
330 W Diversey Pkwy
Multifamily Housing
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
3,553 tons
Highest 10%
233 N Michigan Ave
233 N Michigan Ave
Office
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
8,288 tons
Highest 3%
Chicago Acad Elementary -CPS
(CPS)
3400 N Austin Ave
K-12 School
7.1 kg/sqft
Highest 37%
1,790 tons
Highest 26%
4640 N SHERIDAN RD
🕰️
4640 N SHERIDAN RD
Multifamily Housing
7.1 kg/sqft
1,539 tons
1648 W DIVISION ST
1648 W DIVISION ST
Multifamily Housing
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
639 tons
Lowest 36%
Campus Residential North Commons
(UChicago)
5500 S UNIVERSITY AVE
Residence Hall/Dormitory
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
2,919 tons
Highest 14%
Hyatt Place Chicago
28 N FRANKLIN ST
Hotel
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
1,207 tons
Highest 39%
Catholic Charities: Porta Coeli Senior Housing
2260 E 99th St
Multifamily Housing
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
552 tons
Lowest 30%
Greenview Place
1501 W Melrose St
Senior Living Community
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
584 tons
Lowest 32%
7150 S Cyril Ct
7150 S Cyril Ct
Multifamily Housing
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
510 tons
Lowest 27%
-
6200-42 N Hoyne Ave
Multifamily Housing
7.0 kg/sqft
Highest 39%
1,163 tons
Highest 40%
Page 90 of 226 (Building #1336 to #1350)

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