European Building Emission Factor Database Helps Financial Institutions Reach Net Zero Goals

Financial institutions are an essential element in reaching the goals of achieving net zero in the European building stock by 2050—and the estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their building portfolios is crucial to track the necessary improvements. 

To meet the demands of the European financial industry, the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF)* launched its European building emission factor database. The publicly available database allows financial institutions access to a specified set of emission factors for commercial real estate and mortgages for all countries in the European Union, as well as Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Depending on data availability, financial institutions can distinguish between European countries, residential and non-residential building types, and energy performance certificate (EPC) ratings to extract the specified emission or energy intensity per floor area or unit.

“The launch of the PCAF European building emission factor database represents a crucial milestone of the PCAF project Financing towards net-zero buildings and enables financial institutions to measure and disclose the emissions of their European building portfolios,” said Giel Linthorst, executive director at PCAF and director at Guidehouse. “PCAF is glad to offer this publicly available database to any interested stakeholder.”

Launched globally in 2019, PCAF has more than 210 financial institution signatories. Guidehouse has worked closely with financial institutions all over the world to develop and facilitate the adoption of the first-of-its-kind Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry, which enables financial institutions to consistently measure and disclose the GHG emissions of their loans and investments.

*Guidehouse serves as PCAF’s secretariat.