** Please note that as of May 1, 2023 this library has been selectively updated. New resources using the 2018 CBECS benchmarks have been added for the emissions factor-EUI combinations actively in use or requested by our customers. If you would like to see a new resource added, please contact your account manager.
Upcoming development of the Scope 5 application will enable the ability to assign multiple conversion factors to one tracker without combing factors together in one resource, as is done in this library. This functionality will enable a broader set of factors and is expected later in 2023.**
Introduction
Scope 5’s Estimated International Electricity library includes emissions factors that allow you to estimate electricity usage and the resulting emissions for office buildings when actual utility data is unavailable. This library combines IEA country-specific electricity emissions factors (and Canadian Government's provincial emissions factors) with CBECS energy use intensity benchmarks.
Please note this library does not include resources for the United States. To estimate office energy use in the US please refer to the CBECS Office Buildings Library.
What’s Included
As of March 2021, this library includes 88 resources for 63 countries. Each resource reflects the combination of a country, a climate zone and principal building activity. Large countries include several climate zones and, consequently, have several resources. Emissions factors in these resources combine energy use intensity (EUI) benchmarks with emissions factors; as such they express energy and emissions per square foot of building area.
The list of locations in this library were determined in accordance with Scope 5’s clients’ needs. If the list of locations in this library does not include what you are looking for, feel free to reach out to your Scope 5 account manager who can help to add new locations to the list.
As of January 2021, the bulk of the library covers office buildings’ electricity consumption (and two warehouse-specific resource). Other building categories such as “service” or “vacant” are available through CBECS and can be leveraged for additional resources. Please see the full list and their definitions here.
Where the Numbers Come From
Each resource is composed of three elements:
- Climate zone/region
- EUI benchmark
- Emissions factor
Below we explain from where each component was sourced.
Climate Regions
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) defines nine unique climate zones based on heating and cooling degree days. Each of these zone designations can be mapped to a Building America Best Practice Series climate region, which form the basis of the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) climate regions and accompanying energy use intensity figures. To determine the climate region of an international facility, search for the facility's county in the ASHRAE Climatic Data for Building Design Standards article, and then map it from IECC to Building America using the tables below.
EUI Benchmark
Energy use intensity benchmarks - which describe the average number of kWh used per square foot of office space per year based on climate region - were sourced from the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), a review conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to understand building characteristics and define figures for average EUI for different ‘Principal Building Activities’.
This library includes data for the Principal Building Activity of Office and Warehouse. For offices, floor space for each building type is measured by evaluating "the gross or total square footage of all the space in this building, both finished and unfinished, including basements, hallways, lobbies, stairways, elevator shafts, and indoor parking levels." This means unconditioned spaces like closets are included in calculating EUI figures, but outdoor patios are not. The degree to which your facility deviates from the ratios of conditioned space used in CBECS calculations will contribute to deviations in the accuracy of an inventory using benchmarks, one way or the other.
Emissions Factors
All emissions factors, except for those for Canadian Provinces, were sourced from the International Energy Agency (IEA). For more information on these emissions factors, please review the Scope 5 International Electricity Library. Emissions factors for the Canadian provinces were sourced from the Canadian Government.
More Details
To identify the source of a specific set of emissions factors in Scope 5, please refer to the ‘Source’ for the specific conversion factor set, as illustrated in the following example.
Updates
The Scope 5 Estimated International Electricity Library is updated when any of the source authorities publish updates. The most recent set of emissions factors combined:
- IEA September 2023 data for international electricity emissions factors
- Canadian Government 2022 data for Canadian electricity emissions factors
- CBECS December 2022 release for benchmarking figures
Global Warming Potentials
Following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol recommendation, all Scope 5 standard resource libraries use global warming potentials from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) as of February 13, 2017.
The Scope 5 team is always available to help, whether that means navigating the application, making changes to your account configuration, or just answering questions.
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