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.
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 2020, 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.) |
---|---|---|---|
Lake Terrace Condominium Association
7337 S SOUTH SHORE DR
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 2,203 tons
Highest 20%
|
The Townhouse Apartments
7022 S SOUTH SHORE DR
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 1,059 tons
Highest 43%
|
Fifth Praire Shores, LLC
2801 S King Dr
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 2,351 tons
Highest 18%
|
The Westin Michigan Avenue
909 N Michigan Ave
| Hotel | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 4,426 tons
Highest 8%
|
57 63 W Grand Ave
57 - 63 W Grand Ave
| Office | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 637 tons
Lowest 38%
|
Midrise at Ike Sims Village
3333 W MAYPOLE AVE
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 633 tons
Lowest 37%
|
LaSalle Towers Condominium Association
1211 1217 N LASALLE DR
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 464 tons
Lowest 24%
|
Chicago IL SCH
162 164 E ONTARIO ST
| Hotel | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 621 tons
Lowest 36%
|
1900 West Pratt LLC
1900 1912 W PRATT BLVD
| Multifamily Housing | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 393 tons
Lowest 17%
|
400 W. Superior
400 W Superior St
| Office | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 1,058 tons
Highest 43%
|
Fordham Hall- ID# 103681
6427-6455 N Sheridan Rd
| Residence Hall/Dormitory | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 924 tons
Highest 48%
|
203 North LaSalle
203 N LaSalle St
| Office | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 5,091 tons
Highest 7%
|
Chicago Cultural Center
78 E Washington St
| Other - Entertainment/Public Assembly | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 1,935 tons
Highest 24%
|
101 North Wacker
101 N Wacker Dr
| Office | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 5,368 tons
Highest 6%
|
541 N Fairbanks
541 N Fairbanks
| Office | 8.1 kg/sqft
Highest 26%
| 5,750 tons
Highest 6%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data