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electrifychicago.net
Electrify Chicago
@electrifychicago.net
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We find Chicago's most polluting buildings, so you don't have to! Powered by public energy benchmarking data. 🌎 ElectrifyChicago.net

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electrifychicago.net
Chicago's largest buildings are breaking emissions laws, costing the city nearly $35 million in uncollected fines! Buildings over 50,000 sqft are required to report their emissions, but thousands haven't, and have faced none of the penalties.

Contact your alder to help at electrifychicago.net/act
November 10, 2025 at 11:50 PM
electrifychicago.net
We keep working on new tools to understand Chicago's buildings, and this past week, a contributor added stats to our ward pages!

Have you wondered how many buildings are in your ward, and if their better than average? Find you ward at electrifychicago.net/wards
The Electrify Chicago page for Ward 42, showing that it has 370 tagged buildings, with 1.2 million in total emissions
October 15, 2025 at 1:13 AM
electrifychicago.net
Some universities and agencies own dozens of buildings in Chicago, so we made it easier to understand these large owners and their emissions! Now you can see a breakdown of the grades their buildings get, the total square footage of their buildings, and a whole lot more.
"New Feature - Building Owner Stats! We've got top-level stats for all our building owners - including a breakdown of grades, total emissions, and more! " Overlayed on a screenshot of Illinois Tech, showing 19 tagged buildings with 132k tons CO2e total emissions, and an average GHG intensity of 55.5 kg CO2e/sqft, 9x the median building "Did you see anything that surprised you about a building owner?" Overlayed over a screenshot of DePaul's building owner page, showing 25 tagged buildings and 36k total emissions, with avg GHG intensity of 10.2 kg CO2e/sqft, 2x the median building
October 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
electrifychicago.net
Good News - Electrify Chicago is doing great in search! If you're interested in a building's emissions, we're going to come up.

Bad News - Google is stealing our work for their AI summary 🫠

Support us by sharing our site directly to help push back against our robot overlords 🤖
A Google screenshot showing a search for "Marina Towers Emissions" with an AI overview showing stats that we render
September 10, 2025 at 3:14 AM
electrifychicago.net
A week ago, we updated our site to show you the latest building data, highlighting some brand new buildings. Now, we've added imagery, so you can recognize these properties and see what they look like! What buildings do you find most interesting or surprising?
A screenshot of 320 South Canal on Electrify Chicago, a tall glass office building, and CH1 - Chicago DC1, a large warehouse looking data center, with overlayed text that says "Imagery for New Buildings! Whether it's a brand new all-electric office building..." on the left and "...or a massive data- center, we want to show you info about our biggest buildings!" on the right
September 2, 2025 at 1:11 AM
electrifychicago.net
Ever wonder which of Chicago's iconic are already all-electric? Now you can find out at a glance!

We've added new badges and a lightning icon to highlight all 135 all-electric buildings on Electrify Chicago. Are there any buildings you didn't know were all electric?
Electrify Chicago: New Feature - Badges for All Electric Buildings! Find the buildings that are already gas-free, from individual building pages or building tables! There's 135 all-electric buildings already! Find them at electrifychicago.net
August 27, 2025 at 2:31 AM
electrifychicago.net
Click to reveal the answer below. Did you get it right?!
Welcome to the Mondadnock Building, which we gave an A grade! The Mondadnock was one of the first skyscrapers and six-foot thick brick walls, which are load-bearing! This helps it be very efficient, and have one of the lowest emissions intensities in the whole city! At the bottom right is a report card that says Overall Grade A, Emissions Intensity (50%) A, Energy Mix (40%) - C, and Consistent Reporting (10%) A
August 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
electrifychicago.net
We've been looking at Chicago's building data for a while, and some buildings surprise you - what do you think this building's grade is?!

Check our reply to check your answer, and leave a comment if you guessed right, or were totally surprised!
A photo of a 16 story brick building in downtown Chicago, with text that says Guess This Building's Energy Grade! Your clues: Office building, built in 1890, 496,000 sqft, brick costruction. Do you think it got an A, B, C, D, or F? Swipe to check your answer
August 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
electrifychicago.net
But in more positive news, our brand new citywide stats page (electrifychicago.net/citywide-stats) shows that the overall set of benchmarked buildings has been improving - with slow but noticeable downward trends in emissions, emissions intensity, and electricity use, and fluctuating gas use.
Graphs of Median GHG Intensity and Median GHG Emissions showing them going slowly down, with the former going from 8.3 to 6.5 from 2016 to 2023, while the latter is going from 1,099 tons to 841 tons in the same period Graphs of Median Electricity Use and Median Fossil Gas use showing them going slowly down, with the former going from 4 million kWh to 3.6 million kWh from 2016 to 2023, while the latter is more wavy, with 5.5 million therms in 2016 and 2023, but low points in 2021 and a high point in 2019
August 22, 2025 at 11:33 PM
electrifychicago.net
We also still have several building owners who have now been in violation for several years, like @illinoistech.bsky.social, who haven't reported data for the past two years.
A screenshot of Herman Hall on Electrify Chicago showing a warning of out of date data, and that top-level stats are from 2021, the last full year of reporting A screenshot of Stuart Building on Electrify Chicago showing a warning of out of date data, and that top-level stats are from 2021, the last full year of reporting
August 22, 2025 at 11:33 PM
electrifychicago.net
We've got the scoop on Chicago's buildings! We've updated Electrify Chicago with the city's latest 2023 data, including analysis of new buildings, the buildings that fell out of compliance, and a new citywide stats page.

🚨 But there's a problem - 288 buildings stopped reporting this year! 🧵
The Electrify Chicago Latest Updates page, showing that there are 61 new buildings, but 288 stopped reporting, with a net change of -227 buildings, with 2,261 consistent reporters The new Electrify Chicago citywide stats page, showing the first graph, of Median GHG intensity, which has been gently trending downwards, from 8.3 in 2016 to 6.2 in 2023
August 22, 2025 at 11:33 PM
electrifychicago.net
New feature alert! Have you ever wanted to print off a particular building, to share it out in the real world?

We've got a new print button and print styling just for you! We streamlined and condensed the data, and added a QR code, so anyone seeing your printed page can see the full data
A close up of an Electrify Chicago page with the a print icon highlighted A print preview window showing Crown Hall, with a easy to read layout with the report card on the right, and prominent stat tiles, and a QR code on the bottom right
August 6, 2025 at 3:08 AM
electrifychicago.net
We were out at EcoFest today, telling folks how they can learn about how much energy Chicago's biggest buildings use, and how much they emit!
A number of flyers on a table, including an Electrify Chicago flyer saying "How Much Does Your Building Pollute?"
June 7, 2025 at 11:40 PM
electrifychicago.net
Exciting update! Electrify Chicago has a brand new wards page, letting you easily find your what buildings any alderperson might represent, and each building's page will now show the ward they're located in. Give it a try!

electrifychicago.net/wards
The Electrify Chicago Wards page, showing a list of links for each of Chicago's 50 wards A page for Ward 47, showing the largest buildings in the data in the ward, starting with Lane Tech High School, then the Bradley Business Center, 5040 N Broadway, Warner Brothers, and Lake View High School
June 6, 2025 at 11:18 PM
electrifychicago.net
Need more tools to look for buildings on Electrify Chicago? A new contributor (thanks Ted!) just added the ability to sort GHG Intensity and total emissions on our search page, so you can do things like find the most efficient big hotels in Chicago!

Check it out at: electrifychicago.net/search
The Electrify Chicago search page, with a mouse cursor over the GHG intensity column header
April 4, 2025 at 2:08 AM
electrifychicago.net
We've got a huge feature update - building grades! Now on electrifychicago.net you can see at a glance how a building stacks up to others. How does your building stack up?
The Electrify Chicago homepage showing Chicago's most emissions intense buildings and some featured Chicago buildings, with Crown Hall getting an F, Digital Lakeside getting a C, and more. Electrify Chicago's Marina Towers page, showing it has an overall A, a B under emissions intensity, an A under electricity mix, and an A for consistent reporting.
March 12, 2025 at 2:19 AM
electrifychicago.net
Thanks to a first-time contributor, we added some more imagery! There's now images for over a dozen significant buildings, including The Rookery, Thompson Center, Adler Planetarium, and more!

Check out their emissions at:
electrifychicago.net/building/the...
electrifychicago.net/building/tho...
The Electrify Chicago page for The Rookery Building showing it is 100% electric and has had declining emissions and GHG intensity in the years reported The Electrify Chicago page for The Thompson Center showing it is 65% electric 35% fossil gas powered, and had a GHG intensity of 10.8 kg CO2e/sqft in 2021 (the last year reported) and total emissions of 12,908.9 tons CO2e.
March 3, 2025 at 2:46 PM
electrifychicago.net
Want the data on data centers? We've got you covered!

Learn about five large data centers in Chicago, and how they consume energy:
electrifychicago.net/search?q=&ty...
The Electrify Chicago page for CoreSite, a data center at 427 S LaSalle St that has a GHG intensity of 114.8 kg CO2e/sqft, #1 highest in Chicago, and total emissions of 18,365 tons CO2e, #19 highest in Chicago, and 21 times the median building.
February 19, 2025 at 6:16 PM
electrifychicago.net
Happy Saturday! On our redesigned homepage we feature a 130 year old downtown office building that, despite its age, is one of the top 10 lowest emissions intensity office buildings in Chicago!

Learn more about the Monadnock building, and find others like it:
electrifychicago.net/building/the...
The Electrify Chicago page for the Monadnock building a very thick brick skyscraper, showing it has very low GHG intensity at 2.7 kg CO2e/sqft, half the median Chicago building
February 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM
electrifychicago.net
We can help you learn about all sorts of buildings, from big apartments to power hungry data centers! We're excited to see what you can find in this amazing data set.

electrifychicago.net/building/cor...
The Electrify Chicago page for CoreSite, a data center with 114.8 kg CO2e/sqft GHG intensity and total emissiosn of 18,365 tons, #19 highest in Chicago
February 15, 2025 at 3:42 AM
electrifychicago.net
👋 Oh hi! We're Electrify Chicago - a volunteer run, open-source project that analyses city data, so you can learn how Chicago buildings use energy and how much they emit as a result.

Want to find Chicago's dirtiest building or just learn about your office? Go to ElectrifyChicago.net!
The Electrify Chicago homepage showing a search prominently at the top and a first row of Chicago's Most Emissions Intense Buildings, and a second row of Featured Chicago buildings.
February 15, 2025 at 3:37 AM