How to measure emissions from Downstream leased assets: Buildings: Refrigerant losses

What counts as Downstream leased assets: Buildings: Refrigerant losses

Refrigerant gas leaked or topped up in cooling and refrigeration equipment inside buildings the organisation owns and leases to a tenant. Covers HVAC, chillers and refrigeration units under the landlord's operational responsibility, reported as the mass of gas lost or recharged during the period.

This is Scope 3 Category 13 (downstream leased assets), not Scope 1: the main 'Refrigerant' activity page covers gas lost from equipment the organisation operates itself, while this page covers equipment inside a building you lease out to someone else. Only include activity where the landlord, not the tenant, operates or maintains the cooling plant. If a tenant services their own units under a full repairing lease, that loss sits in the tenant's own inventory - including it here as well would double-count the same gas across two organisations' footprints.

What activity data you need

Collect the most specific physical unit available. Unit definitions are in Appendix I — Description of Units.

• kg

Which emission scope it falls under

Downstream leased assets: Buildings: Refrigerant losses activity data typically maps to Scope 3 Category 13 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.

Common questions

Do we report refrigerant losses for a building we lease out?

Yes, if your organisation (as landlord) is the one servicing or maintaining the cooling or refrigeration equipment. This sits in Scope 3 Category 13, separate from the Scope 1 refrigerant losses in buildings you occupy yourselves.

What if the tenant maintains their own air conditioning?

Then the refrigerant loss belongs in the tenant's own inventory, typically their Scope 1 or Category 8 upstream leased asset entry, not yours. Reporting it on both sides would double-count the same gas.

Where do I get the refrigerant loss figure from?

Ask your F-Gas engineer or HVAC contractor for the service log or leak-detection report, which records the kilogrammes of gas topped up at each visit, usually broken down by refrigerant blend.

Which refrigerant types need separate tracking?

Log each blend (for example HFC-134a, R-410A or R-407C) separately rather than as a combined total, since different refrigerants have very different global warming potentials and the platform applies a distinct factor to each.

How does this differ from the main Refrigerant activity page?

The main Refrigerant page covers Scope 1 losses from equipment your organisation operates directly. This page covers Scope 3 Category 13 losses from equipment inside a building you own but have leased out to someone else.