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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
πŸ“° $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! πŸŽ‰

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 only includes large Chicago buildings from 2021, 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 β€œAs 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 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.)
53100539 -- Chicago
🚩
3857 S DR MARTIN L KING JR DR
Supermarket/Grocery Store
26.2 kg/sqft
#46 Highest
1,886 tons
Highest 24%
8791
🚩
(Northwestern)
300 E Superior Street
Laboratory
25.5 kg/sqft
#47 Highest
7,737 tons
Highest 4%
03262- Chicago, IL
🚩
4660 W Irving Park Rd
Supermarket/Grocery Store
25.4 kg/sqft
#49 Highest
1,800 tons
Highest 26%
03181- Chicago, IL
🚩
87 W 87th St
Supermarket/Grocery Store
25.4 kg/sqft
#49 Highest
1,781 tons
Highest 26%
Wicker Park Commons (Jewel)
🚩
1341 N Paulina St
Retail Store
25.3 kg/sqft
#50 Highest
1,325 tons
Highest 35%
University of Chicago Medical Center
🚨
(UChicago)
5841 S. Maryland Ave MC0985
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
25.2 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
137,221 tons
#1 Highest
IN0035-21C Museum Hotel Chicago
55 E Ontario St
Hotel
25.0 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,797 tons
Highest 26%
Provident Hospital
🚩
500 E 51st St
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
24.9 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
9,307 tons
Highest 3%
00901- Chicago, IL
3400 N Western Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
24.8 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,381 tons
Highest 34%
03344- Chicago, IL
1220 S Ashland Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
24.8 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,569 tons
Highest 30%
70800570 -- Dan Ryan
112 W 87th St
Supermarket/Grocery Store
24.7 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,524 tons
Highest 31%
Rush University Medical Center
🚨
1653 W Congress Pkwy
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
24.7 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
96,018 tons
#2 Highest
Saint Anthony Hospital - Main Hospital
2875 W 19th St
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
24.0 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
5,735 tons
Highest 6%
53100527--CHICAGO
2021 W Chicago Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
23.9 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,312 tons
Highest 36%
26 North Halsted
26 N Halsted St
Office
23.8 kg/sqft
Highest 2%
1,361 tons
Highest 34%
Page 4 of 171 (Building #46 to #60)

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