As a landlord, are my tenants’ energy emissions my Scope 3?

It depends on your consolidation approach. If you use the operational control approach and tenants control their own building operations (procure energy, manage HVAC), those emissions are outside your Scope 1/2 and fall into Category 13. If you manage the building and procure energy on behalf of tenants, the emissions are likely your Scope 2.

How do I collect data from tenants for Category 13?

Request utility data through green lease clauses, tenant engagement surveys, or by installing sub-metering. Where actual data is unavailable, use benchmarks such as CIBSE energy benchmarks for UK commercial buildings to estimate tenant energy consumption.

Downstream Leased Assets (Scope 3 Category 13)

Category 13 of Scope 3 covers emissions from the operation of assets owned by the reporting company and leased to other entities, where those emissions are not included in Scope 1 or Scope 2.

What is Downstream Leased Assets (Scope 3 Category 13)?

Category 13 is the downstream counterpart to Category 8. It applies when a company owns assets that it leases to tenants or other organisations. The most common example is a property company that owns office buildings leased to tenants — the energy emissions from those buildings would fall under Category 13 if not already captured in the owner’s Scope 1 or 2.

As with Category 8, applicability depends on the organisational boundary and consolidation approach. Under the operational control approach, if the lessor does not operationally control the leased asset (e.g., the tenant controls the building operations), the emissions may fall outside Scope 1/2 and into Category 13.

This category is particularly relevant for landlords, property investors, real estate companies, and equipment leasing firms where the assets they own are operated by others.

Practical Examples

A commercial property REIT reports the energy emissions from 30 office buildings leased to tenants, using landlord utility bills and tenant energy data where available.

A vehicle leasing company estimates the use-phase emissions of its entire leased fleet based on average annual mileage and vehicle fuel efficiency ratings.

An equipment hire company calculates the fuel consumption emissions of construction equipment leased to contractors using operating hour assumptions.

How Climatise Helps

Climatise helps asset owners and lessors calculate Category 13 emissions from their leased portfolios, using tenant data collection workflows, benchmarking, and portfolio-level analytics.

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