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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.)
20 E CEDAR ST
20 E CEDAR ST
Multifamily Housing
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
887 tons
Lowest 50%
517 525 N HALSTED ST
517 525 N HALSTED ST
Multifamily Housing
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
461 tons
Lowest 22%
399 W FULLERTON PKWY
399 W FULLERTON PKWY
Multifamily Housing
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
675 tons
Lowest 39%
6214 6218 N WINTHROP AVE
6214 6218 N WINTHROP AVE
Multifamily Housing
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
303 tons
Lowest 9%
Museum of Science and Industry
5700 S Lake Shore Dr
Museum
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
6,291 tons
Highest 5%
175 W Jackson
175 W Jackson
Office
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
9,342 tons
Highest 3%
Robert Morris Center
🕰️
401 S. State St.
Adult Education
5.2 kg/sqft
2,693 tons
St. Rita of Cascia HS
7740 S Western Ave
K-12 School
5.2 kg/sqft
Lowest 28%
1,431 tons
Highest 33%
8747 W Bryn Mawr Ave
8747 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
472 tons
Lowest 23%
343 W SCHILLER ST
343 W SCHILLER ST
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
496 tons
Lowest 26%
1143 S Plymouth Court
1143 S Plymouth Court
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
700 tons
Lowest 40%
GRAND ORLEANS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION
330 W Grand Ave
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
1,075 tons
Highest 43%
2025 N Milwaukee Ave
2025 N Milwaukee Ave
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
357 tons
Lowest 13%
720 S WELLS ST
720 S WELLS ST
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
2,319 tons
Highest 19%
Carriage House
1545 S State St
Multifamily Housing
5.1 kg/sqft
Lowest 26%
684 tons
Lowest 39%
Page 166 of 226 (Building #2476 to #2490)

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