Many of Chicago's largest buildings are ignoring a 2013 city law that requires them to report their energy usage, with no accountability. So far the city has missed out on $35 million in unrealized fines.
Contact your alder and tell them enough is enough - let's collect those fines, and get buildings reporting!
Contact Your Alderperson
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The Issue: The City Has Failed to Collect $35 Million in Fines
About 70% of Chicago's greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. Since 2013, Chicago has had a Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance requiring buildings over 50,000 ft² to report energy usage annually. However, the city has never enforced this ordinance.
Over a 6-year period starting in 2018, Chicago failed to collect over $35 million in fines (source) from non-compliant buildings—an average of over $5.5 million in uncollected fines every year. And compliance is decreasing.
The Solution: Hire an Inspector to Enforce Fines!
Starting January 1, 2025, authority over the ordinance shifted to the Department of Environment. But they cannot legally enforce it without a staff member in the position of "Inspector".
We need the 2026 city budget to include funding for an inspector to enforce the benchmarking ordinance. Since an inspector's salary would be only a small fraction of the several million dollars in potential fines they could collect annually, this would be a net revenue-generating expenditure which would also increase accountability and support climate action.
Learn More
For more information, see our analysis of missed fines and the year by year fines breakdown.
This advocacy effort is led in partnership with the
Climate Reality Project's Chicago Metro Chapter.
