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Chicago's Most Emissions Intense Buildings

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The buildings that reported the highest greenhouse gas emissions per square foot

  • Illinois Institute of Technology
    Crown Hall
    College/University
    GHG Intensity
    555.1
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    30,138
    tons CO2e
    F
    Overall Grade
  • Digital Lakeside
    Data Center
    GHG Intensity
    142.1
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    173,705
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • Hyde Park West Apartments
    Multifamily Housing
    GHG Intensity
    126
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    18,453
    tons CO2e
    F
    Overall Grade
  • ⚡ All Electric
    CoreSite
    Data Center
    GHG Intensity
    114.8
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    18,365
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • Digital Printer's Row
    Data Center
    GHG Intensity
    93.5
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    17,323
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
    Tech Business Center
    College/University
    GHG Intensity
    89.3
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    12,569
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
    Herman Hall
    College/University
    GHG Intensity
    88.9
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    9,883
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • Shop & Save Market - Nagle
    Supermarket/Grocery Store
    GHG Intensity
    83.7
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    5,584
    tons CO2e
    F
    Overall Grade
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
    Life Sciences Research Building
    College/University
    GHG Intensity
    80.7
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    8,317
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade
  • University of Chicago
    6045 Kenwood Building
    Office
    GHG Intensity
    79.7
    kg CO2 / sqft
    Total Emissions
    7,899
    tons CO2e
    C
    Overall Grade

Featured Chicago Buildings

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Our Research

📰 Do High Emitting Buildings Stop Reporting?
Mar. 6th, 2025

Many buildings in Chicago that fall under the benchmarking requirements don't report their energy use and emissions. We investigated if there was a pattern at play, and whether poor performing buildings stopped reporting at higher rates than good performers.

Read Our Full Research On Whether Poor Performance Impacts Reporting Rate.

📰 $30 Million In Missed Fines
Feb. 2nd, 2024

The City Of Chicago failed to collect $30 million in potential fines from the building benchmarking ordinance, reducing transparency and accountability.

Read Our Full Blog Post On Millions in Missed Fines.

Note: Data From Large Buildings in 2022

Note: This data only includes buildings whose emissions are reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance(opens in a new tab). According to the City “As of 2016, this list includes all commercial, institutional, and residential buildings larger than 50,000 square feet.”

The latest year of data is from 2022, but we update the site regularly when new data is available, and some buildings may have failed to report that year, and only have older data available.

Additionally, note that all tons specified are metric tons.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)