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.
The City Of Chicago failed to collect $30 million in potential fines from the building benchmarking ordinance, reducing transparency and accountability.
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!
Note: This data only includes buildings whose emissions are reported
under the
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance. According to the City βAs of 2016,
this list includes all commercial, institutional, and residential buildings larger than
50,000 square feet.β This dataset is also then filtered to only buildings with
reported emissions > 1,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent.
This data is also from 2021, but when new benchmark data is available, we'll update the site.
Property Name / address | Primary Property Type |
Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO2 eq./sqft) |
Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO2 eq.) |
---|---|---|---|
Crown Hall
π¨
π·
(Illinois Tech)
3360 S State Street
| College/University | 555.1 kg/sqft #1 Highest
| 30,139 tons #7 Highest
|
CH1
π¨
π·
427 S LaSalle St
| Data Center | 119.5 kg/sqft #2 Highest
| 19,115 tons #21 Highest
|
600-780 S Federal St
π¨
π·
600 S Federal St
| Data Center | 101.9 kg/sqft #3 Highest
| 18,871 tons #22 Highest
|
Tech Business Center
π¨
π·
(Illinois Tech)
3440 S Dearborn Street
| College/University | 89.3 kg/sqft #4 Highest
| 12,570 tons #45 Highest
|
Herman Hall
π¨
π·
(Illinois Tech)
3241 S Federal Street
| College/University | 88.9 kg/sqft #5 Highest
| 9,884 tons
Highest 3%
|
Life Sciences Research Building
π¨
(Illinois Tech)
35 W 34th Street
| College/University | 80.7 kg/sqft #6 Highest
| 8,317 tons
Highest 3%
|
Keating Hall
π¨
π·
(Illinois Tech)
3040 S Wabash Avenue
| College/University | 69.5 kg/sqft #7 Highest
| 3,694 tons
Highest 10%
|
6045 Kenwood Building
π¨
π·
(UChicago)
6045 S Kenwood Ave
| Office | 69.4 kg/sqft #8 Highest
| 6,886 tons
Highest 4%
|
601 West Polk
π¨
601 W Polk Street
| Data Center | 65.7 kg/sqft #9 Highest
| 6,829 tons
Highest 5%
|
William Eckhardt Research Center (ERC)
π¨
π·
(UChicago)
5640 S ELLIS AVE
| Laboratory | 54.3 kg/sqft #10 Highest
| 15,454 tons #32 Highest
|
Salem Baptist Church of Chicago
π©
10909 S Cottage Grove Ave
| Worship Facility | 52.6 kg/sqft #11 Highest
| 4,830 tons
Highest 7%
|
Searle Chemistry Laboratory
π©
π·
(UChicago)
5735 S Ellis Ave
| Laboratory | 47.4 kg/sqft #12 Highest
| 4,052 tons
Highest 9%
|
Gordon Center for Integrative Science (GCIS)
π©
π·
(UChicago)
929 E 57th St
| Laboratory | 41.8 kg/sqft #13 Highest
| 20,053 tons #16 Highest
|
McGowan North
π©
(DePaul)
2325 N Clifton Ave
| College/University | 39.7 kg/sqft #14 Highest
| 2,224 tons
Highest 20%
|
Pete's Pulaski
π©
4343 S Pulaski Rd
| Supermarket/Grocery Store | 36.0 kg/sqft #15 Highest
| 2,014 tons
Highest 22%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data