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.
As of late January 2024, legislation is being introduced to require new buildings 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 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 “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 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.) |
---|---|---|---|
Blackwood
5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 1,082 tons
Highest 42%
|
Axis House
441 E Erie St
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 4,190 tons
Highest 9%
|
Arkadia Tower
765 W Adams St
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 2,571 tons
Highest 16%
|
Scio at Medical District Apartments
901 903 S Ashland Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 2,516 tons
Highest 17%
|
Roger C Sullivan High School
(CPS)
6631 N Bosworth Ave
| K-12 School | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 1,586 tons
Highest 30%
|
Metropolis
8 W Monroe St
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 1,585 tons
Highest 30%
|
55 West Wacker Drive
55 W Wacker Dr
| Office | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 2,041 tons
Highest 22%
|
congress plaza hotel
520 S Michigan Ave
| Hotel | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 4,364 tons
Highest 8%
|
228 South Wabash Building
228 S Wabash Ave
| Office | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 473 tons
Lowest 25%
|
Daily News Condominium Association
222 S RACINE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 400 tons
Lowest 18%
|
N001845-CHICAGO BRICKYARD
2630 N NARRAGANSETT AVE
| Retail Store | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 853 tons
Lowest 49%
|
207-Senior Suites of Ravenswood Manor
2800 W MONTROSE AVE
| Senior Living Community | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 467 tons
Lowest 24%
|
Benchmark Sherway Tower LP
4225 N SHERIDAN RD
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 1,164 tons
Highest 39%
|
230-Senior Suites-Central Station
1400 S INDIANA AVE
| Senior Living Community | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 523 tons
Lowest 29%
|
1200 Condominium Association
1200 N LAKE SHORE DR
| Multifamily Housing | 7.3 kg/sqft
Highest 36%
| 700 tons
Lowest 41%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data