How do I allocate a mall's common-area electricity to my store?
Ask the mall for the common-area electricity in kWh and the total leasable area, then take your store's share by area and multiply by 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh. For a tenant it is Scope 3, Category 8; the operator reports the whole common area in its Scope 2.
What the mall should give you
- Common-area kWh for the period, from its bills.
- Total leasable area and your area from the lease.
- Diesel for common-area generators, if any.
Which basis
Area share is the usual basis and matches how service charges are billed. Use it every year so figures stay comparable, and say so in your method note.
Where it goes
Your own metered electricity is Scope 2. The common-area share is Scope 3, Category 8, upstream leased assets, because the mall runs that space.
Worked example: one store's common-area share (one month, illustrative inputs)
- Common-area electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
- Your store: 4,000 sq ft of 200,000 sq ft leasable area = 2 percent
- Your share: 42,600 x 0.02 = 852 kg CO2, reported in Scope 3, Category 8
Inputs are illustrative; use the mall's statement of common-area units.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and diesel, LPG and gas invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a dated, fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record for each site. Intensity per unit uses the activity count you enter, and estimates are labelled as estimates.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.