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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.)
Axis Apartments & Lofts
441 E Erie St
Multifamily Housing
11.3 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
6,474 tons
Highest 5%
1111 N Clark St
1111 N Clark St
Vehicle Dealership
11.3 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
1,017 tons
Highest 44%
Claretian Missionaries Service
🕰️
205 W. Monroe
Worship Facility
11.3 kg/sqft
1,223 tons
Quality Inn Midway Airport
🕰️
7353 S CICERO AVE
Hotel
11.3 kg/sqft
983 tons
Lake Meadows Shopping Center Building 2
3445 3481 S King Dr
Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym
11.2 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
675 tons
Lowest 39%
Gateway Chicago West
3828 W Taylor St
Residential Care Facility
11.2 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
575 tons
Lowest 32%
BAI Century, LLC
2828 N Clark St
Enclosed Mall
11.2 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
1,954 tons
Highest 24%
840 N Michigan Ave
840 N Michigan Ave
Retail Store
11.2 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
973 tons
Highest 46%
Gunsaulus Hall
🕰️
(Illinois Tech)
3140 S Michigan Avenue
Residence Hall/Dormitory
11.1 kg/sqft
924 tons
908 920 W ARGYLE ST
908 920 W ARGYLE ST
Senior Living Community
11.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
1,637 tons
Highest 29%
City North 14
2600 N Western Ave
Movie Theater
11.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
809 tons
Lowest 47%
30 W OAK ST
30 W OAK ST
Multifamily Housing
11.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
1,985 tons
Highest 23%
Charles M. Harper Cetner (Booth School)
(UChicago)
5807 S Woodlawn Ave
College/University
11.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
4,640 tons
Highest 7%
CW GLL 444 N Michigan
444 N Michigan Ave
Office
11.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
5,746 tons
Highest 6%
300 E Randolph
🕰️
300 E Randolph
Office
11.1 kg/sqft
24,655 tons
Page 28 of 226 (Building #406 to #420)

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