This module is designed to collect all the information related to your buildings, so we can include those in the calculation of your Scope 2 emissions (GHG emissions associated with energy consumption).
Important: All the details you provide for each building must accurately represent the reporting period (the timeframe covered by the accounting file) you have submitted.
In this article, you will learn:
If this module is relevant to your company;
Where to fill in your building information;
What information to fill in and how calculations are done;
Areas of focus.
General case
As long as your company activities' are held in buildings that are not the domestic residence of your employees, the building module is relevant to your company. Therefore, if you work/hold activities in co-working places, your own offices, factories, or warehouses, you should fill out your building data.
A few things to have in mind:
Whenever filling the surface and the energy consumption of your buildings, please only include the part that corresponds to your company.
Eg: If the total area of the building is 20000 sqft and your office space occupies 10% of it, you should input 2000 sqft as the area. The same logic applies to energy consumption, in case you only have access to the total energy of the building and not from your office.
To avoid double counting your emissions, if any rent is detected through the accounting file, its contribution to the final carbon assessment will be zero. Learn more: Avoiding double counting of emissions
If your employees are remote workers, we will collect data related to their work facilities through the employee survey module. In this case, you should not add the corresponding building in the module.
Where and how to fill in your building information?
To fill in the information on your buildings, go to the Data > Buildings module then click on "Add buildings".
There are two ways to complete this module: manually ("Single Building Form") for each building you have or by utilizing the template provided on the platform by clicking on "Download the data collection template" (CSV file).
If you have multiple buildings, the CSV option might be your preferred solution, although you can submit as many buildings using the "Single Building Form"
If you use the Utility or Urjanet applications, you will also have a third option to integrate the data you have in your account. Log in to your account from the Integration module:
1. General information
You should fill in the building name, the country of location, the type of city, and the number of employees working in your building. This information is key for us to choose the right emission factors and establish benchmarks).
If you only occupy a part of the building, kindly specify the total space used by your organization.
💡 Operational control
💡 Operational control
According to the GHG Protocol, "a company has operational control over an operation if the former or one of its subsidiaries has the full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the operation."
"It should be emphasized that having operational control does not mean that a company necessarily has authority to make all decisions concerning an operation. Operational control does mean that a company has the authority to introduce and implement its operating policies."
"Single Building Form"
"Single Building Form"
At the top right of the page, you can change the unit of measurement from square meters to square feet (Sqft).
"Data collection template"
"Data collection template"
If you are following the GHG Protocol methodology (and not BEGES), additional boxes will appear, asking the Electricity Grid.
Feel free to look up this article: How to find my Electricity Grid?
Once you have completed filling out the template, click on "Import Several Buildings".
2. Impact of building & parking construction
⚠️ This topic is only relevant to BEGES(and not GHG Protocol) methodology.
Greenly will calculate an additional impact to account for the initial construction of the building, as the construction of the building impact GHG emissions. To compute those emissions, Greenly uses:
the building kind (Office, Warehouse, etc), to choose the appropriate proxy value, since the construction of each type of building emits a different amount of CO2. Greenly has a proxy value in kgCO2e/m2 for each building kind.
the building surface (m2)
"Single Building Form"
"Single Building Form"
"Data collection template"
"Data collection template"
If the building has parking, Greenly also calculates the parking construction emissions with the parking surface entered and an emission factor of 2.4 kgCO2e/m2/an.
3. Electricity
Enter the electricity consumption over the reporting period (kWh). It will be multiplied by the corresponding emission factor.
From the French Environment Agency (ADEME) when the building is located in France
From EGRID when the building is located in the USA
From the International Energy Agency (IEA) for other locations
From ElectricityMaps if no IEA emission factor exists for the country/electricity grid you have selected
Note: if you only have access to the total energy consumption of the building, and you only occupy a percentage of it, please input the consumption equivalent to the percentage. Eg: If the total area of the building is 20000 sqft and your office space occupies 10% of it, you should input 10% of the total consumption as your energy consumption.
"Single Building Form"
"Single Building Form"
"Data collection template"
"Data collection template"
If you are following the GHG Protocol methodology, you will be able to fill the % of renewable electricity you purchased in the year of the report, if any. It will affect the market-based emissions, but not the location-based emissions.
For more details, check these articles:
👉 If you do not enter any value for the electricity consumption, Greenly will use the building area to calculate a proxy. This proxy will depend on the type of energy used to heat the building.
4. Heating
To enter the type of heating and the associated consumption:
Choose the type of heating from the drop-down list (gas, oil, or heating network).
If you have a heating network, select the relevant heating network below the type of heating.
Enter the consumption (kWh) for the period of the study (the same as the Financial File you uploaded).
"Single Building Form"
"Single Building Form"
"Data collection template"
"Data collection template"
Greenly will use the emission factor corresponding to the heating type you enter (gas, oil, or heating network).
👉 If you do not fill the heating consumption, Greenly will use the building area to calculate a proxy.
5. Air conditioning
You can indicate whether your building (or a portion of it) uses air conditioning.
"Single Building Form"
"Single Building Form"
To enter the refrigerant gas leakage of the installations:
Indicate if the building is air-conditioned.
Indicate the surface area concerned (m2).
Indicate the refrigerant used (present on the technical data sheet of the air conditioner). Example: R404a
Indicate the quantity of refrigerant recharged over the period of the balance sheet (usually present in the technical report of recharging) (kg).
"Data collection template"
"Data collection template"
👉 If you do not fill the annual refrigerant gas reload, Greenly will use the building area to calculate a proxy, using the value of 2.37 kgCO2e/m2/year.
Once you have completed all the information, don't forget to click on the "Create building" button. You can modify the data until the end of the data collection phase.
6. Buildings Overview
Once your buildings are registered, they will all be visible and editable from the main page of this module.
You will be able to have details about methodology and calculations regarding your buildings' emission factors.
The more information you give, the more precise will be the emissions calculations. Keep in mind that, if some data are lacking, Greenly will use the building surface (or the number of employees if no surface is entered) to compute proxies.
If you don't have the data to complete this module, you can always click on "Skip task" from the dashboard.
When this module is completed, please make sure you look into our article to avoid double counting.
If you have any questions, you can contact our support team by clicking the button at the bottom right of the platform.