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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 Meets weekly @chihacknight.org

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Feb 15

👋 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.

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · 23h

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · 12d

Find universities and agencies by going to our website's large owner page! Did you find anything surprising? 👀

electrifychicago.net/large-owners

Large Owners

Explore buildings by major property owners in Chicago - universities, the city, and other large organizations.

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · 12d

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Sep 10

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Sep 2

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?

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 27

And you can find the full list of all electric buildings right here!

electrifychicago.net/biggest-gas-...

Biggest Gas Free Buildings - Electrify Chicago

Learn about Chicago's most polluting buildings, and why we need to electrify!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 27

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 24

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

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 24

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

A lot of volunteers put a lot of effort into crunching this data, so if you found it interesting, or useful, give us a follow, and share this with a friend! If you have feedback on graphs and analysis that would be helpful to you, let us know that too!

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

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

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

Unfortunately, there's also several buildings that stopped reporting - since fines haven't been levied for non-compliance, we expect this trend to continue. One example? The cook county department of corrections!

electrifychicago.net/building/coo...

Cook County Department of Corrections Campus

Is Cook County Department of Corrections Campus doing its part for Chicago's climate goals? We gave it an C grade, and it emits 42,560 tons of CO₂. See how it stacks up and what can be done about it!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

There's also some older buildings that started reporting for the first time, like the CHI1 Data Center. It's all electric, but has the second highest GHG intensity in the city!

electrifychicago.net/building/ch-...

CHI1 - Chicago DC1

Is CHI1 - Chicago DC1 doing its part for Chicago's climate goals? We gave it an C grade, and it emits 48,295 tons of CO₂. See how it stacks up and what can be done about it!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

To start, you can jump into all of this data at our latest updates page (electrifychicago.net/latest-updates). There we can find new buildings, like the all-electric 320 N Canal, aka BMO Tower! Finished in 2021, we can now get a look into its energy use.

electrifychicago.net/building/320...

320 South Canal

Is 320 South Canal doing its part for Chicago's climate goals? We gave it an A grade, and it emits 7,727 tons of CO₂. See how it stacks up and what can be done about it!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 22

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Aug 6

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

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jul 18

We love our lean green corn cobs!

electrifychicago.net/building/mar...

Marina Towers Condominium Association

Is Marina Towers Condominium Association doing its part for Chicago's climate goals? We gave it an A grade, and it emits 4,310 tons of CO₂. See how it stacks up and what can be done about it!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jul 18

And this is a great demonstration of our new social media images! Now when you share a link to a building on Electrify Chicago, you should see a building image, top level stats, grades, and an energy mix! We hope this makes it easier to talk about Chicago's buildings

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jul 18

Old buildings aren't necessarily inefficient - the beautiful Monadnock building from the 1890s has some incredibly low greenhouse gas intensity, lower than 98% of Chicago buildings! Can you guess its secret?

electrifychicago.net/building/the...

The Monadnock Building

Is The Monadnock Building doing its part for Chicago's climate goals? We gave it an A grade, and it emits 1,336 tons of CO₂. See how it stacks up and what can be done about it!

electrifychicago.net

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jun 7

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?"

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jun 6

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

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Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Jun 5

On a poor air quality day like today, it's a good opportunity to look at how Chicago's biggest buildings contribute both to local air pollution and climate change!

electrifychicago.net

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Apr 4

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

Electrify Chicago @electrifychicago.net · Mar 12

And if you're curious how we grade buildings, and why, check out our explainer article: electrifychicago.net/blog/how-we-...

How We Grade Buildings, And Why - Electrify Chicago

Learn about Chicago's most polluting buildings, and why we need to electrify!

electrifychicago.net