Every step, in detail
Each step is a stable anchor — link to it directly from tooling, disclosures, or verifier notes. The published guide is the official version.
Part 0 Foundation Shared concepts, definitions, and assumptions used across every assessment.
F1
Introduction
The CRREM Assessment Guide explains how to assess the carbon and energy performance of real estate assets and portfolios against the CRREM Pathways. It sets out the calculation logic for determining the CRREM Misalignment Year consistently across asset- and portfolio-level reporting.
This guidance reflects the calculation logic used in the CRREM Risk Assessment Tool v2.07. The tool will be retired on 1 July 2026; the calculation approach continues through the CRREM Foundation's published methodology.
F2
Glossary
Definitions used throughout the guide.
- Reported Energy
- Measured energy consumption for the reporting period, prior to any adjustments.
- Adjusted Energy
- Energy consumption after applying normalization factors (e.g. vacancy, data coverage, weather adjustments).
- Vacancy Rate
- Share of total floor area that is unoccupied during the reporting period.
- Data Coverage
- Proportion of total floor area for which energy data is available.
- Data Coverage Adjustment
- Extrapolation of reported energy to account for missing data across parts of the asset.
- Floor Area (GIA)
- Asset floor area measured as Gross Internal Area.
- Energy Type
- Source or form of energy used to supply the building: grid electricity, natural gas, oil, district heating, district cooling, biomass, other fuels, and renewable energy generated on-site.
- Total Energy
- Sum of all energy types consumed on-site, plus on-site renewable energy consumed on-site. Exported renewable energy is not included.
- Total Carbon Emissions
- Sum of annual energy consumption × emission factor across all energy types.
- Net Carbon Emissions
- Total carbon emissions minus the grid export credit. Credit is capped at grid-electricity emissions and cannot offset on-site gas, oil, or district heating.
- Carbon Intensity
- Operational GHG emissions per unit of floor area (kgCO₂e/m²/yr). Used to assess alignment with decarbonization pathways.
- Energy Use Intensity (EUI)
- Total energy consumption per unit of floor area (kWh/m²/yr). Measures operational energy performance.
- CRREM Misalignment Year
- First year in which the building's projected carbon or energy intensity exceeds the relevant CRREM Pathway.
- Asset Baseline Performance
- Baseline and linear future carbon performance projection using reporting-year emissions held flat.
- Climate- & Grid-Adjusted Performance
- Asset performance adjusted for forward-looking grid decarbonization and, optionally, climate-scenario HDD/CDD changes.
- HDD / CDD
- Heating / Cooling Degree Days — measure of heating and cooling demand based on how much and how long outside temperatures are below or above a base temperature.
- Emission Factor (EF)
- Coefficient converting energy consumption to greenhouse gas emissions — kgCO₂e per unit of energy consumed.
- Grid Decarbonization
- Projected reduction in electricity emission factors over time as the energy mix shifts to lower-carbon sources.
F3
CRREM Global Pathways
Science-based decarbonization and EUI pathways reflecting the emissions and energy intensity levels buildings must meet to remain aligned with a 1.5°C warming trajectory. Provided by country (or sub-national region for the United States, Canada, and Australia), property type, and climate zone.
Browse pathway data & datasets Property types & definitions
F4
Underlying assumptions
Shared assumptions applied across all CRREM assessments.
- Energy use coverage.TC Whole-building: all in-use operational energy within the building boundary. Excludes non-heated outdoor areas, indoor parking, and electricity for EV charging.
- Reporting period. 12 months of energy consumption data for the reporting year.
- Occupancy. Default is full occupancy with no material vacancy.
- Floor area.TC Gross Internal Area (GIA) in m² or local equivalent.
- Asset characteristics. Floor area, use type, and location held constant over the projection period unless explicitly adjusted.
- Grid emission factor. Location-based approach per the GHG Protocol.
- District heating & cooling projections.TC Assumed to decarbonize at the same rate as the respective national electricity grid (proxy).
- Refrigerant losses. Report refrigerant type and leakage volume (kg); converted to CO₂e by CRREM calculations.
- Pathway scenario.TC Only the 1.5°C scenario pathways are recognized for official CRREM Risk Assessments.
F5
Property types & definitions
Each CRREM Pathway is specific to one property type. Use these definitions to assign an asset, or each floor-area share of a mixed-use asset, to a CRREM property type (steps A1 and A5). Version 1.01, 28 April 2026.
- Office
- Includes free-standing offices, office terraces, unattributed office buildings and office parks.
- Retail – High Street
- Retail buildings located on the high street in a particular area, usually terraced buildings located in the city centre or other high-traffic pedestrian zones.
- Retail – Shopping Centre
- Enclosed centres for retail purposes. Examples may include, but are not limited to: regional malls and shopping malls.
- Retail – Warehouse
- Refers to buildings in an unenclosed retail space, otherwise known as a strip centre or strip mall, whereby buildings are usually stand-alone and situated side-by-side with their entrance facing a main street or carpark.
- Enclosed Retail Mall
- Large-scale, fully enclosed retail centres with shared internal circulation and climate-controlled common areas. Examples may include, but are not limited to: regional shopping centres, mega malls, outlet malls and multi-level enclosed retail complexes.
- Retail Store
- Retail Store refers to individual stores used to conduct the retail sale of non-food consumer goods such as Department Stores, Discount Stores, Drug Stores, Dollar Stores, Hardware Stores, and Apparel/Specialty Stores (e.g., books, clothing, office products, sporting goods, toys, home goods, and electronics). Buildings containing multiple stores should be classified as enclosed mall, lifestyle center, or strip mall. The area should include all space within the building(s), including sales areas, storage areas, offices staff break rooms, elevators, and stairwells.
- Strip Shopping Center
- Strip mall refers to buildings comprising more than one retail store, restaurant, or other business, in an open-air configuration where each establishment has an exterior entrance to the public and there are no internal walkways. Examples may include, but are not limited to: neighbourhood retail strips, convenience centres and small plaza retail units.
- Residential Single Family
- Detached or semi-detached dwellings designed for occupancy by a single household. Examples may include, but are not limited to: detached houses, bungalows, townhouses and duplexes.
- Residential Multi Family
- Buildings containing multiple separate dwelling units within a single structure. Examples may include, but are not limited to: apartment buildings, condominiums, social housing blocks and purpose-built rental buildings.
- Large Multi-Family – Low Rise (>20 Units)
- The count of all individual private apartments/ condominiums (both occupied and unoccupied) located in an individual building that is 1 to 4 stories in height.
- Large Multi-Family – High Rise (>20 Units)
- The count of all individual private apartments/ condominiums (both occupied and unoccupied) located in an individual building that is 10 or more stories in height.
- Small Multi-Family – High Rise (<20 Units)
- The count of all individual private apartments/ condominiums (both occupied and unoccupied) located in an individual building that is 10 or more stories in height.
- Industrial – Distribution Warehouse Warm
- Refers to a building in an unenclosed space, usually these are stand-alone buildings situated by a car park or truck loading areas as they act as a shipping hub, receiving shipments and holding items until they are loaded onto trucks and distributed elsewhere. Often the warehouses are in the form of large halls and are located around the outskirts of cities.
- Industrial – Distribution Warehouse Cooled
- Refers to a building in an unenclosed space, usually these are stand-alone buildings situated by a car park or truck loading areas as they act as a shipping hub. Operators of cold storage warehouses and refrigerated distribution centres require reliable temperature control to ensure the quality and shelf life. These assets have a higher energy-intensity on average due to cooling large open spaces, cold rooms and low temperature-controlled environments.
- Shipping/Distribution Warehouse
- Refers to unrefrigerated buildings that are used for the temporary storage and redistribution of goods, manufactured products, merchandise or raw materials. Buildings that are used primarily for assembling, modifying, manufacturing, or growing goods, products, merchandise or raw material should be classified as Manufacturing Facility.
- Self-Storage
- Self-Storage Facility refers to buildings that are used for private storage. Typically, a single Self Storage Facility will contain a variety of individual units that are rented out for the purpose of storing personal belongings. Examples include, but are not limited to: climate-controlled storage facilities, drive-up storage centres and multi-storey self-storage buildings.
- Lodging, Leisure & Recreation
- Includes lodging, sports club houses, gyms, sports stadia, indoor sports arenas, halls, swimming pools, theatre and auditoria.
- Hotel
- Includes hotels, motels, youth hostels, lodging, and resorts.
- Health Care
- Buildings used for the purpose of primary health care. Examples may include, but are not limited to: hospitals, clinics, physical therapy centres and mental health centres.
- Inpatient Healthcare
- Healthcare facilities where patients are admitted for overnight stays and ongoing clinical care. Examples may include, but are not limited to: hospitals, rehabilitation centres, psychiatric inpatient facilities and long-term care hospitals.
- Outpatient Healthcare
- Healthcare facilities providing medical services that do not require overnight admission. Examples may include, but are not limited to: clinics, day surgery centres, diagnostic imaging centres and physical therapy practices.
Sources. INREV Global Definitions Database; GRESB Real Estate Reference Guide 2025, Appendix 5 (Property types classification); ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager glossary.
Download as PDFPart I Asset-level assessment Six steps to take a single building from raw inputs to its CRREM Misalignment Year.
A1
Collect building-level input data
All inputs needed to calculate the CRREM Misalignment Year for an asset.
- Property type (must match a CRREM Pathway)
- Country (and postal code for US, Canada, Australia)
- Reporting year
- Gross Internal Area (GIA)
- Energy types with annual consumption in kWh
- Renewable energy produced & consumed on-site (kWh/yr)
- Renewable energy exported to grid (kWh/yr)
Mixed-use. Additional input: floor-area share (%) per property type present. No minimum threshold. Where a property type has no CRREM Pathway, elect the most similar covered type.
Property types. Use the CRREM property types & definitions (F5) to assign each asset, or each floor-area share, to a CRREM property type.
A2
Compute total building energy & EUI
Sum on-site energy consumption (including renewables consumed on-site, excluding exported renewables) and normalize by floor area.
EUI = Total Energy / Floor Area (kWh/m²/yr)
A3
Match consumed energies with emission factors
Assign each energy type an emission factor in kgCO₂e/kWh by carrier, country, and year. Grid electricity uses the location-based approach (GHG Protocol). For sub-national pathways (US, Canada, Australia), emission factors are matched at the same sub-national level as the selected pathway.
A4
Calculate carbon intensity
Multiply each energy type's consumption by its emission factor and sum to get total gross emissions. Where renewable energy is exported, apply the grid export credit (capped at grid-electricity emissions; cannot offset on-site gas, oil, or district heating). Divide net emissions by floor area.
Net CO₂ = Total CO₂ − Grid Export Credit Carbon Intensity = Net CO₂ / Floor Area (kgCO₂/m²/yr)
A5
Select the appropriate CRREM Pathway
Pathways are specific to property type and region. For mixed-use, generate a composite pathway by floor-area weighting the single-use pathways.
Property types. Check which pathway applies in the CRREM property types & definitions (F5).
Example — 65% Office + 35% Retail High Street, 2024: 0.65 × 57 + 0.35 × 84 ≈ 66.3 kgCO₂/m² (blended pathway)
All-GHG pathway. Use only where F-gas emissions are both comprehensively captured and material in the asset's emissions data. Applying it otherwise overstates the available emissions budget.
A6
Determine the CRREM Misalignment Year
Project the asset's energy and carbon intensity from the reporting year to 2050 and compare against the selected pathway. The Misalignment Year is the first year the projection exceeds the pathway — reported separately for energy and carbon.
Default projection (6.1): EUI held flat (do-nothing scenario). Grid electricity EF declines year-by-year per the CRREM series. All other emission factors remain constant. District heating & cooling factors follow the national grid projection.
Carbon Intensity(t) = [ Σ(Energy_type × EF_type(t)) − Grid Export Credit(t) ] / GIA
Part II Portfolio-level aggregation Four steps to combine asset results into a portfolio-weighted performance and pathway.
P1
Assemble asset-level inputs
Required per-asset inputs for portfolio aggregation.
- Gross Internal Area (GIA), m²
- Asset carbon intensity (output from A4), kgCO₂e/m²/yr
- Asset EUI (output from A2), kWh/m²/yr
- CRREM Pathway time series 2020–2050 for both carbon and EUI, for the asset's property type & region
Optional. Gross Asset Value (GAV) or Net Operating Income (NOI) support alternative weighting approaches. Floor-area weighting is the default.
P2
Floor-area-weighted portfolio aggregation
Compute per-asset floor-area weight, then aggregate intensity and EUI.
weight_i = GIA_i / GIA_total CI_portfolio = Σ ( CI_i × weight_i ) EUI_portfolio = Σ ( EUI_i × weight_i )
Worked example. Four assets at 7,500 / 22,000 / 12,000 / 15,000 m² (total 56,500 m²) yield a portfolio carbon intensity of ≈ 66.1 kgCO₂e/m²/yr. Full workings: Worked Examples.
P3
Build the weighted portfolio CRREM Pathway
Apply the same floor-area weights to each asset's pathway values, year by year from 2020 to 2050. The result is the portfolio's own decarbonization pathway, reflecting its specific composition of property types and regions.
pathway_portfolio(t) = Σ ( pathway_asset_i(t) × weight_i ) for t = 2020…2050
Mixed-use assets. Generate the asset-level mixed-use pathway first (see A5), then use that as the input to portfolio aggregation.
P4
Compare performance against the pathway
Portfolio Misalignment Year is the first year the portfolio's projected carbon or energy intensity exceeds its weighted pathway — reported separately for carbon and energy.
Edge cases. If the portfolio's projected intensity already exceeds the pathway before 2020, report 2020 as the Misalignment Year. If it never crosses through 2050, report > 2050.
Under TC review
At the time this Assessment Guide is published, several underlying assumptions remain under review by the Technical Council. These topics are still being refined and are noted here to ensure transparency for users of the guide.
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Normalizations
The Technical Council will set baselines for key normalizations, standardize their methodology, consider expanding them, and assess uniform application across CRREM Pathways and global benchmarks.
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Building Energy Use Coverage
CRREM uses a whole-building approach but lacks formal definitions for included end uses and process load exclusions. Definitions, exclusion criteria, and a property-type classification framework will be developed.
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Energy Data Quality
Metered data is preferred but modeled data is accepted without formal disclosure; a decision will be made on adopting an existing data quality table or creating a CRREM-specific framework for disclosing data quality.
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Floor Area Definition
To provide greater consistency in how floor area is defined.
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District Heating and Cooling
Current district thermal energy inputs do not enable accurate EUI assessment, and informal guidance on plant efficiency is inconsistently applied. This will be formalized and revised, along with consideration of emission factors and forward-looking projections for district thermal systems.
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Pathway Scenario
CRREM currently recognizes only the 1.5°C scenario pathways for official Risk Assessments. The Foundation Board has approved the re-introduction of the 2°C pathways and these are under development. Please see the Pathway Development Outlook for status.