Electrify Chicago
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.
Chicago Buildings by Greenhouse Gas Intensity
Note: Data only includes large Chicago buildings from 2020
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.
This data is also from 2020, but when new benchmark data is available, we'll update the site.
| Property Name / address | Primary Property Type |
Greenhouse Gas Intensity (kg CO2/sqft) |
Total Greenhouse Emissions (metric tons CO2) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Tides at Lakeshore East
360 E South Water St
| Multifamily Housing | 7.8 
Highest 49%
| 3,775 
Highest 23%
|
|
Chicago Swissotel
323 E Wacker Dr
| Hotel | 7.8
Highest 49%
| 5,533
Highest 13%
|
|
222 South Riverside Plaza
222 S Riverside Plz
| Office | 7.8
Highest 49%
| 9,696
Highest 7%
|
|
One Superior Place
1 W Superior St
| Multifamily Housing | 7.8
Highest 49%
| 5,135
Highest 15%
|
|
Harper Square Cooperative
4800 - 4850 S Lake Park Ave
| Multifamily Housing | 7.8
Highest 49%
| 4,872
Highest 16%
|
|
Commonwealth Plaza Condominium Association
330 W Diversey Pkwy
| Multifamily Housing | 7.8
Highest 49%
| 3,932
Highest 22%
|
|
33 West Monroe
33 W Monroe St
| Office | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 8,344
Highest 8%
|
|
One Magnificent Mile
980 N Michigan Ave
| Mixed Use Property | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 7,871
Highest 8%
|
|
Max Palevsky Residential Commons/Bartlett Commons
1101 E 56th St
| Residence Hall/Dormitory | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 2,297
Highest 43%
|
|
Saieh Hall for Economics
🏆
5757 S University Ave
| College/University | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 1,172
Lowest 13%
|
|
Michigan Plaza
🚩
205 N Michigan Ave
| Office | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 15,937 #36 Highest
|
|
GX Master Tenant
2545 W Diversey Ave
| Office | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 1,744
Lowest 40%
|
|
5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE
5200 5208 S BLACKSTONE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 1,146
Lowest 10%
|
|
Armstrong Intl Studies Elementary -CPS
2110 W Greenleaf Ave
| K-12 School | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 1,130
Lowest 9%
|
|
6250 6258 S PARK SHORE EAST CT
6250 6258 S PARK SHORE EAST CT
| Multifamily Housing | 7.7
Lowest 50%
| 1,160
Lowest 12%
|
Data Source:
Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data