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.) |
---|---|---|---|
300 North Elizabeth
300 N Elizabeth St
| Office | 19.6 kg/sqft
Highest 9%
| 2,504 tons
Highest 38%
|
Omni Hotel
676 N Michigan Ave
| Hotel | 19.5 kg/sqft
Highest 9%
| 8,600 tons
Highest 8%
|
Symphony of Bronzeville
3400 3428 S INDIANA AVE
| Senior Living Community | 19.4 kg/sqft
Highest 9%
| 1,416 tons
Lowest 25%
|
Kindred Hospital Chicago North
2544 W Montrose Ave
| Other - Specialty Hospital | 19.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 2,837 tons
Highest 33%
|
Incubator Building
55 W 34th Street
| College/University | 19.0 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 1,373 tons
Lowest 23%
|
Garfield Park Behavioral Hospital
🏆
520 N Ridgeway Ave
| Other - Specialty Hospital | 19.0 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 1,016 tons
#17 Lowest in Chicago*
|
Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute
2430 N Halsted St
| Laboratory | 18.9 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 2,315 tons
Highest 43%
|
#1107 Chicago South Loop
1430 S Ashland Ave
| Supermarket/Grocery Store | 18.9 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 2,960 tons
Highest 31%
|
2535 S Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr
2535 S Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr
| Medical Office | 18.8 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 1,038 tons
Lowest 3%
|
Kent Chemical Laboratory
🏆
1020 - 1024 E 58th St
| Laboratory | 18.8 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 1,123 tons
Lowest 9%
|
Holy Cross Hospial
🚩
2701 W 68th St
| Hospital (General Medical & Surgical) | 18.8 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 7,708 tons
Highest 9%
|
Presence St Joseph Hospital - Chicago
🚩
2900 N Lake Shore Dr
| Hospital (General Medical & Surgical) | 18.5 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 12,603 tons
Highest 4%
|
Ratner Athletics Center
(UChicago)
5530 S Ellis Ave
| Fitness Center/Health Club/Gym | 18.4 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 3,109 tons
Highest 29%
|
Chicago-Central
4058 W Melrose St
| Other - Specialty Hospital | 18.4 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 2,191 tons
Highest 46%
|
Mansueto Library
🏆
1100 E 57th St
| Library | 18.1 kg/sqft
Highest 10%
| 1,161 tons
Lowest 12%
|
Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data