According to the 2022 Chicago Climate Action Plan, 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.
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.
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