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Electrify Chicago

According to the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan(opens in a new tab), a whopping 69% of Chicago's emissions come from buildings, making it our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity as a city to tackle change. At Electrify Chicago we want to showcase some of the best and worst performing buildings in the city using publicly available data and manual annotations to add building photographs and label multi-building owners like universities.

You can start by looking at Chicago's buildings with the highest greenhouse gas intensity - this means that they use the most energy when adjusted per unit of square foot, so big buildings could actually perform much better than very inefficient small buildings on this metric.

Chicago Buildings by Greenhouse Gas Intensity

Note: Data only includes large Chicago buildings from 2020

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.

This data is also from 2020, but when new benchmark data is available, we'll update the site.

Property Name / address Primary Property Type Greenhouse Gas Intensity
(kg CO2/sqft)
Total Greenhouse Emissions
(metric tons CO2 eq.)
Sun Plaza
🏆
4851 - 4887 N Broadway Ave
Strip Mall
16.5
Highest 12%
1,016
#16 Lowest
McGowan South
(DePaul)
1110 W Belden
College/University
16.5
Highest 12%
2,108
Highest 48%
Dyett HS -CPS
555 E 51st St
K-12 School
16.4
Highest 12%
1,980
Lowest 48%
California Gardens Rehabilitation Center
2829 S CALIFORNIA BLVD
Senior Living Community
16.3
Highest 12%
1,187
Lowest 14%
Warren Barr Gold Coast
66 W Oak St
Senior Living Community
16.2
Highest 12%
2,187
Highest 46%
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
🚩
355 E ERIE ST
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
16.2
Highest 12%
14,188
#46 Highest
The Schatz
610 N FAIRBANKS CT
Retail Store
16.1
Highest 12%
1,156
Lowest 11%
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
11 E Walton St
Hotel
16.0
Highest 12%
4,957
Highest 16%
3630 N Clark St
3630 N Clark St
Hotel
15.9
Highest 12%
2,935
Highest 32%
Midtown Athletic Club
2020 W Fullerton Ave
Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym
15.9
Highest 12%
3,304
Highest 27%
Rockefeller,Mitchell,Reynolds,Hutchinson,Zoology,Erman,Mandel,Oriental,Pres.Home
5850 S Woodlawn Ave
Museum
15.8
Highest 13%
1,627
Lowest 34%
Woodson Regional Library
🏆
9525 S Halsted St
Library
15.7
Highest 13%
1,022
#25 Lowest
University Club of Chicago
76 E Monroe St
Hotel
15.7
Highest 13%
2,260
Highest 45%
Police Training Academy
1300 W Jackson Blvd
Adult Education
15.5
Highest 13%
2,796
Highest 33%
Presence SMEMC St Elizabeth Campus
1431 N Claremont Ave
Mixed Use Property
15.5
Highest 13%
4,780
Highest 17%

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