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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.)
Galter Life Center
5157 N Francisco Ave
Outpatient Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy
18.4 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,322 tons
Highest 36%
YUSUF INDIANA
🕰️
1911 S INDIANA AVE
Office
18.4 kg/sqft
2,302 tons
Omni Hotel
676 N Michigan Ave
Hotel
18.3 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
8,057 tons
Highest 4%
Quinlan Life Sciences Education and Research Center-ID# 254168
🕰️
(Loyola)
1050 W Sheridan
Other - Education
18.2 kg/sqft
2,545 tons
3030 N BROADWAY
3030 N BROADWAY
Enclosed Mall
18.1 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
3,690 tons
Highest 10%
Lakeshore Sport & Fitness Lincoln Park
1320 W Fullerton Ave
Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym
18.1 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
2,376 tons
Highest 19%
Clark Manor
🕰️
7427 7433 N CLARK ST
Senior Living Community
18.1 kg/sqft
1,064 tons
Bria of Forest Edge
8001 S Western Ave
Senior Living Community
18.1 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,319 tons
Highest 36%
Advocate Trinity Hospital
2320 E 93rd St
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
18.1 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
6,666 tons
Highest 5%
Mercedes Benz of Chicago
🕰️
1520 W North Ave
Automobile Dealership
17.9 kg/sqft
836 tons
NMH Prentice Womens Hospital
🚩
(Northwestern)
250 E Superior St
Hospital (General Medical & Surgical)
17.9 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
16,896 tons
#22 Highest
Symphony of Bronzeville
3400 3428 S INDIANA AVE
Senior Living Community
17.8 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,293 tons
Highest 37%
Jewel Osco, 03344-Roosevelt & Ashland
1220 S Ashland Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
17.8 kg/sqft
Highest 3%
1,126 tons
Highest 41%
2200 S Western Ave
2200 S Western Ave
Supermarket/Grocery Store
17.6 kg/sqft
Highest 4%
1,143 tons
Highest 40%
Hicks
🕰️
970 E.59th St.
Laboratory
17.5 kg/sqft
934 tons
Page 11 of 226 (Building #151 to #165)

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