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.) |
---|---|---|---|
Sun Plaza
🏆
4851 - 4887 N Broadway Ave
| Strip Mall | 16.5 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,016 tons
#16 Lowest in Chicago*
|
McGowan South
(DePaul)
1110 W Belden
| College/University | 16.5 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 2,108 tons
Highest 48%
|
Dyett HS -CPS
555 E 51st St
| K-12 School | 16.4 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,980 tons
Lowest 48%
|
California Gardens Rehabilitation Center
2829 S CALIFORNIA BLVD
| Senior Living Community | 16.3 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,187 tons
Lowest 14%
|
Warren Barr Gold Coast
66 W Oak St
| Senior Living Community | 16.2 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 2,187 tons
Highest 46%
|
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
🚩
355 E ERIE ST
| Hospital (General Medical & Surgical) | 16.2 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 14,188 tons #46 Highest
|
The Schatz
610 N FAIRBANKS CT
| Retail Store | 16.1 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 1,156 tons
Lowest 11%
|
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
11 E Walton St
| Hotel | 16.0 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 4,957 tons
Highest 16%
|
3630 N Clark St
3630 N Clark St
| Hotel | 15.9 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 2,935 tons
Highest 32%
|
Midtown Athletic Club
2020 W Fullerton Ave
| Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym | 15.9 kg/sqft
Highest 12%
| 3,304 tons
Highest 27%
|
Rockefeller,Mitchell,Reynolds,Hutchinson,Zoology,Erman,Mandel,Oriental,Pres.Home
5850 S Woodlawn Ave
| Museum | 15.8 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 1,627 tons
Lowest 34%
|
Woodson Regional Library
🏆
9525 S Halsted St
| Library | 15.7 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 1,022 tons
#25 Lowest in Chicago*
|
University Club of Chicago
76 E Monroe St
| Hotel | 15.7 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 2,260 tons
Highest 45%
|
Police Training Academy
1300 W Jackson Blvd
| Adult Education | 15.5 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 2,796 tons
Highest 33%
|
Presence SMEMC St Elizabeth Campus
1431 N Claremont Ave
| Mixed Use Property | 15.5 kg/sqft
Highest 13%
| 4,780 tons
Highest 17%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data