Overview
The Buildings module is a core End-to-End module, added to every profile automatically. For each building in scope it computes emissions from electricity, non-electric heating, refrigerant leaks from air conditioning, and employee waste. This module applies to the GHG Protocol.
Key use cases
Building a per-building footprint from provided or estimated consumption data
Supporting both location-based and market-based electricity approaches
Producing automatic estimates when a client cannot provide actual consumption
What this module covers
For each building included in the study, the module provides the data for the following impacts:
Electricity consumption
Heating consumption, if not electric
Refrigerant leaks from air conditioning
Waste from employees
How the module works
Emissions are computed as: Quantity x Conversion factor(s) x Emission factor.
Activity data (quantity): a measurable physical quantity (kWh, m3, kg, m2, employees)
Conversion factors: bridge the unit gap between the activity data and the emission factor
Emission factor: kgCO2e per unit of activity
For electricity, heating and air conditioning, clients can provide actual consumption data (the highest quality) or, when it is not available, the quantity is estimated from building characteristics (surface or employee count) multiplied by conversion factors. For waste, the impact is estimated automatically from the number of employees in the building, and can be removed manually if needed.
All activity data sources and assumptions on raw data are the client's responsibility. An optional evidence-file upload is available within each building to support the audit process.
How emission factors are matched
The general year-matching rule is that the EF year is the closest to the reporting year (priority: same year, then year-1, then year+1, then year-2, and so on).
Electricity, location-based
Selection hierarchy by priority:
Referential type, based on building location: France uses Base Empreinte (ADEME), the United States uses eGRID (EPA), the United Kingdom uses UK GHG Conversion Factors, Canada uses a public authority, and the rest of the world uses the IEA.
Geographical scope, most specific available: country subdivision (for example US eGRID zones), then country-wide average, then UN regional average, then global average as a fallback.
Each electricity EF has four components: generation (Scope 2), upstream (Scope 3), T& D generation (Scope 3) and T& D upstream (Scope 3).
Electricity, market-based
Uses the GHG Protocol market-based hierarchy: residual mix EFs (AIB for European countries, Green-e for the United States), falling back to location-based factors when no residual mix is available.
Heating
Gas: the unit is matched to the client data (energy or volume); country defaults are ADEME for France, UK GHG Conversion Factors for the UK, EPA for the US, and the French default elsewhere. EFs include combustion (Scope 1) and upstream (Scope 3).
Fuel (oil): energy or volume, sourced from ADEME Base Empreinte; EFs include combustion (Scope 1) and upstream (Scope 3).
Heat networks: a specific EF per network for France (else the French average, ADEME), a US average (Greenly EF) for the US, and the French average elsewhere. EFs include generation (Scope 2) and upstream (Scope 3).
Air conditioning and refrigerant gas
Selection is based on the specific refrigerant gas type when provided, defaulting to R410A. The unit is mass (kg), with a geographic filter by country or UN region and priority for ADEME on French buildings.
Waste
Country-specific EFs per employee per year: France 50.18, United Kingdom 103.36, United States 94.26, Canada 94.26, and a default of 50.18 kgCO2e per employee.
Emission factor sources
The platform uses the latest available version of each database at the time of assessment, matched to the reporting year: ADEME Base Empreinte v23, IEA, eGRID, UK GHG Conversion Factors, and IPCC AR6 for refrigerant global warming potentials.
Scope allocation
Electricity: generation in Scope 2.1; upstream and T& D in Scope 3.3
Heating (gas/fuel): combustion in Scope 1.1; upstream in Scope 3.3
Heat networks: generation in Scope 2.2; upstream in Scope 3.3
Refrigerant gas: leaks in Scope 1.4
Waste: Scope 3.5
Leased assets move to Scope 3.8 or 3.13 when there is no operational control
FAQs
What happens if a client cannot provide actual consumption?
The quantity is estimated from building characteristics (surface or employee count) multiplied by standard conversion factors, so the building can still be computed.
Which electricity approaches are supported?
Both the location-based approach and the market-based approach are supported, each with its own selection hierarchy.
Whose responsibility is the underlying data?
All activity data sources and assumptions are the client's responsibility. An optional evidence-file upload is available per building to support the audit.