In the realm of commercial real estate, sustainability reporting has become an increasingly critical component of the industry’s commitment to environmental responsibility. Global frameworks like the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) encourage transparency and accountability by assessing real estate portfolios’ sustainability performance. One of the essential metrics for GRESB reporting is the measurement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which requires accurate and comprehensive energy data.
A key component of this data is main meter data—utility consumption data collected directly from the meters that track energy use at a property. However, acquiring this data presents significant challenges, especially in multi-tenant commercial buildings. Without access to reliable main meter data, accurately calculating Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions, primarily from tenant operations) becomes nearly impossible, posing challenges for companies striving for high GRESB scores. But it is also a largely manual and time-consuming task.
So, how do commercial real estate owners and operators gain that valuable tenant data and accurately measure and monitor progress? We’ll break it down.
The Importance of Main Meter Data.
Main meter data refers to the information collected directly from utility meters, typically managed by energy providers, and otherwise known as tenant consumption data. In commercial real estate, this data is fundamental for determining energy usage across a building or portfolio of assets, allowing for better decision-making, sustainability tracking, and cost control. More importantly, main meter data serves as the foundation for calculating GHG emissions, particularly in the context of GRESB submissions.
Without accurate main meter data, it becomes difficult to gain a full understanding of a building’s energy consumption, undermining efforts to track emissions, set reduction targets, and report progress. For GRESB, which scores real estate portfolios based on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance, having reliable energy consumption data is non-negotiable.
Scope 3 Emissions and Their Role in GRESB.
To understand the challenges posed by main meter data acquisition, it’s critical to look at Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions that occur from sources not owned or directly controlled by the property owner. In the context of commercial real estate, Scope 3 emissions mainly encompass energy consumed by tenants, alongside other indirect activities like waste management and business travel. And if you have a portfolio of assets, gaining access to this granular data can be a laborious task to say the least.
GRESB places significant importance on emissions data, including Scope 3. Given that tenant operations can account for a substantial portion of a building’s overall energy usage, capturing this data is crucial for an accurate assessment of a property’s carbon footprint.
Challenges in Acquiring Main Meter Data.
1. Multi-Tenancy and Submetering Complexities
One of the most significant challenges in acquiring main meter data in commercial real estate arises from the complexities of multi-tenanted buildings. In many properties, individual tenants have separate utility meters (or submeters), which track energy consumption for their specific leased space. While submeters offer detailed insight into tenant-level energy use, they are often difficult to access for owners and operators.
In cases where submetering is not implemented, energy usage for the entire building may be aggregated on a single main meter, making it impossible to distinguish between common area usage and tenant consumption. As a result, owners and operators are left with an incomplete picture of overall energy usage, complicating the calculation of Scope 3 emissions.
2. Lack of Standardisation in Data Collection and Access
Another key issue in acquiring main meter data is the lack of standardisation in how energy data is collected, reported, and accessed. Different utility providers use different formats for data, making it difficult for real estate companies to integrate this information into their sustainability reporting systems. Access to this data is often dependent on the willingness of the utility provider to share it, which may not always align with the owners and operator’s reporting deadlines… especially with the all-important GRESB deadlines in January.
Overcoming Data Acquisition Challenges.
While the challenges of acquiring main meter data in commercial real estate are significant, there are solutions that can help you overcome these hurdles:
1. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)
The adoption of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) can provide real estate companies with more precise and real-time data on energy consumption. AMI systems use smart meters that automatically collect and transmit energy data to central management systems, like The Utopi Platform, reducing the need for manual data collection and ensuring that property managers have access to detailed energy consumption data. This can streamline the process of calculating Scope 3 emissions and improve the accuracy of GRESB submissions.
See more on Utopi’s Metering Solutions, here.
2. Green Lease Clauses
To address the issue of tenant data access, real estate owners and operators can include green lease clauses that require tenants to share their energy consumption data. These clauses can also incentivise energy efficiency by aligning tenant and landlord goals around sustainability, ensuring that both parties are committed to reducing emissions. By embedding these requirements into lease agreements, it helps avoid many of the barriers associated with acquiring tenant-level data.
3. Consider your Tech Stack
Implementing technology solutions is the single most important way to drive a data-first approach to the management of your commercial assets. And we’re not just talking AMI – this should include the whole lifecycle of your real estate and its operations. Just as understanding the environmental footprint, and subsequent progress, of an asset is impossible without main meter data; it’s also important to consider:
- Environmental Data – Sensors that can monitor humidity, noise levels, etc.
- IoT Infrastructure – consider people counters to understand space optimisation.
- Air Quality – Especially for life science sectors, air quality can be a key metric to track; and tech solutions can ensure you get alerts to your inbox when data shows anomalies in the environment.
- Automation – Without automation, optimisation quite simply won’t be as efficient. And if data acquisition can be efficient, then technology is well worth the cost on ROI impact alone. Consider technologies that automate this process so annual submissions for GRESB can be managed with ease, and not be a time-consuming task.
Ultimately, GRESB submissions are key to the ongoing operations and trading of commercial real estate – and when data plays such an integral role in gaining this certification, finding ways to improve the efficiency of data acquisition is essential. The first approach has to be: optimise, and then decarbonise.
Want to learn more about how Utopi can help you gain that all important tenant main meter data? Speak to our team today.