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.) |
---|---|---|---|
MLL 1945 Wilson, LLC
1945 W WILSON AVE
| Mixed Use Property | 6.6 kg/sqft
Highest 47%
| 449 tons
Lowest 22%
|
191 North Wacker
191 N Wacker Dr
| Office | 6.6 kg/sqft
Highest 47%
| 5,148 tons
Highest 7%
|
77 West Wacker Drive
77 W Wacker Dr
| Office | 6.6 kg/sqft
Highest 47%
| 7,570 tons
Highest 4%
|
O'Hare Plaza I
8725- 8745 W Higgins Rd
| Office | 6.6 kg/sqft
Highest 47%
| 3,559 tons
Highest 11%
|
Woodlawn - University of Chicago
1156 E 61ST ST
| Residence Hall/Dormitory | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 2,488 tons
Highest 17%
|
Oriole Park Elementary School
5424 N Oketo Avenue
| K-12 School | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 495 tons
Lowest 26%
|
Marquee at Block 37
25 West Randolph Street
| Multifamily Housing | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 3,819 tons
Highest 10%
|
Aberdeen
171 N Aberdeen St
| Mixed Use Property | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 1,008 tons
Highest 45%
|
1000 S Clark (ks50)
1000 S CLARK ST
| Multifamily Housing | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 2,918 tons
Highest 14%
|
3205 W. Carmen Ave.
3205 W Carmen Ave
| College/University | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 431 tons
Lowest 20%
|
Newberry Park Apartments
1353 & 1357 S Blue Island Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 658 tons
Lowest 39%
|
Plaza On Dewitt Condominium Association
260 E Chestnut St
| Multifamily Housing | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 2,798 tons
Highest 15%
|
Suder Montessori Magnet ES
(CPS)
2022 W Washington Blvd
| K-12 School | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 464 tons
Lowest 24%
|
Calmeca Academy of Fine Arts and Dual Language
(CPS)
3456 W 38th Street
| K-12 School | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 710 tons
Lowest 42%
|
Mariano Azuela Elementary School
(CPS)
4707 W Marquette Rd
| K-12 School | 6.5 kg/sqft
Highest 49%
| 616 tons
Lowest 36%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data