Using RECs for an Industrial Real Estate Firm

Methods
1

Hello,

Does anyone know whether renewable energy certificates (RECs), particularly solar RECs, can be used to offset an industrial real estate firm’s scope 2 GHG emissions? We are pursuing the small-medium enterprise pathway.

Our GHG emissions comprise of 2 office assets (scope 1 for natural gas usage and scope 2 for purchased electricity). Our scope 3 emissions are associated with the NNN-leased industrial assets we lease to single tenants. We will be developing PV solar in a location not associated with our office assets where we will own the RECs associated with the solar energy. We hope to expire the “renewable-ness” from these RECs to eliminate the non-renewable energy currently purchased for our 2 office assets.

Is this allowed under SBTi’s guidance for small-medium enteprises? or are RECs considered the same thing as carbon offsets in this case?

Thanks!

2

Hi Nick, thanks for posting!

Please note that this forum is only for queries and exchanges about SBTs for financial institutions. The team will only respond to posts related to FIs. For questions about SBTs for corporates and SMEs, please review the extensive resources, FAQs, and documentation available on our website or direct your queries to info@sciencebasedtargets.org if you cannot find the answer in our existing resources.

3

Hi Chendan!

Thank you for the direction.

I’ve already emailed the SBTi team and will wait for a response. I’ve reviewed SBTi’s extensive resources multiple times, but my answer could not be found.

Thanks,
Nick