Electrify Chicago
An independent tool for viewing City of Chicago building data
According to the
2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan
,
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.
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!
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. 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.) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
High School/ Middle School/ Sunny and Kovler Gym/ Belfield, Judd, Blaine Hall
5840 S Kenwood Ave
| K-12 School | 13.6 kg/sqft 
Highest 6%
| 1,236 tons
Highest 38%
|
|
540 W Madison Ave
🚩
540 W Madison
| Financial Office | 13.6 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 16,649 tons #24 Highest
|
|
Warner Brothers
2650 W Bradley Pl
| Office | 13.5 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 2,026 tons
Highest 23%
|
|
Dyett HS -CPS
(CPS)
555 E 51st St
| K-12 School | 13.5 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 2,192 tons
Highest 21%
|
|
SpringHill Suites Chicago O'Hare / Hampton Inn and Suites Chicago
8101 W Higgins Rd
| Hotel | 13.5 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 2,162 tons
Highest 21%
|
|
Woodson Regional Library
9525 S Halsted St
| Library | 13.5 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 876 tons 
Lowest 49%
|
|
Walmart Supercenter #5402
🕰️
4650 W North Ave
| Wholesale Club/Supercenter | 13.5 kg/sqft | 1,913 tons |
|
Juvenile Courthouse
🕰️
2245 W. Ogden Ave.
| Courthouse | 13.5 kg/sqft | 5,553 tons |
|
Beth Anne Extended Living
🕰️
1143-53 N Lavergne
| Multifamily Housing | 13.4 kg/sqft | 1,073 tons |
|
Hotel Monaco Chicago
225 N Wabash
| Hotel | 13.4 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 1,649 tons
Highest 29%
|
|
King Syke LLC
🕰️
2545 S King Drive
| Medical Office | 13.4 kg/sqft | 2,048 tons |
|
Friend Family Health Center at University of Chicago
800 E 55th St
| Medical Office | 13.4 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 979 tons
Highest 46%
|
|
Lurie Children's Faculty Office Building
155 E Superior St
| Office | 13.4 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 1,109 tons
Highest 41%
|
|
533 E 33RD PL
533 E 33RD PL
| Multifamily Housing | 13.4 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 1,441 tons
Highest 33%
|
|
NMH Arkes Family Pavilion
(Northwestern)
676 N St Clair St
| Medical Office | 13.4 kg/sqft
Highest 6%
| 9,026 tons
Highest 3%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data