Scope

This document describes the calculations performed inside the Higg FEM 2025 assessment itself: the energy, emissions, wastewater and refrigerant values a facility and its verifier see on the platform and that are exported with the assessment.

These totals are the FEM’s own simplified methodology. They are not a GHG Protocol inventory, and they are neither purely location-based nor purely market-based. They are designed to be completed consistently from a facility’s utility and fuel records and to be comparable across facilities and years; they should not be read as scope 1 and scope 2 figures. The main departures from the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 2 Guidance are:

• No scope split and no dual reporting. totalGHGemissions combines fuel combustion, company vehicles, refrigerants, purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling into one figure. The only split published is renewable versus non-renewable sources. No location-based and market-based pair is produced.
• Electricity mixes location and market conventions. Purchased electricity (and chilled water) uses a single IEA country grid factor, a location-based figure. Purchased renewables are a contractual instrument and are given an emission factor of 0, or the facility’s reported generation mix, which is market-based treatment: in a location-based inventory those MWh would carry the grid factor. Unbundled Energy Attribute Certificates go the other way and never reduce any total. Self-declared supplier factors are collected but not used.
• Biogenic CO2 is inside the totals. Biomass, biogas, biodiesel, ethanol and the biomass fractions of fabric and municipal waste carry full combustion CO2e factors, so their biogenic CO2 is counted alongside fossil CO2. The GHG Protocol reports biogenic CO2 outside the scopes and counts only the CH4 and N2O of biomass combustion in scope 1.
• Secondary energy is modelled, not supplier-reported. Purchased steam reported by mass, district heating and chilled water are converted with assumed generation efficiencies (0.8, 0.8 and a coefficient of performance of 3) and default factors (coal for steam and district heating, the grid for chilled water), so their MJ approximate the energy consumed at the generator rather than the energy delivered by the supplier, and their emissions are not the supplier’s.
• Refrigerant use is treated as emitted. The quantity of refrigerant reported as used in the year is multiplied by its global warming potential; there is no leak-rate or mass-balance method.
• Wastewater methane is outside the totals. Biogenic emissions from wastewater treatment are reported separately as biogenicCO2e and are not added to totalGHGemissions, although wastewater CH4 is a scope 1 emission.
• Single CO2e factors. Each source is MJ multiplied by one kg CO2e per MJ factor on an IPCC AR6 basis. There is no gas-by-gas breakdown, no process emissions, and hydrogen is 0 regardless of how it was produced.

The GHG Protocol aligned figures (scope split, location and market-based pairs, biogenic memo items, attributed secondary sources and data-quality flags) are produced from the same answers by the Higg Assessment Model (HAM) and documented in the HAM guidance. Consumers who need inventory-grade numbers should use those. Where the two differ, the HAM guidance is the reference for HAM outputs and this document is the reference for the values inside FEM.

Answer values referenced in this document (for example yes and no) are the option indices stored with the assessment, not the display text shown to the facility.

Production and Domestic Energy Use

Data Collection

Data about production and domestic energy use is collected in the Energy section of FEM separated by facility type except in the case that a facility operates as and only as both a Finished Product Processing and Finished Product Assembler and Finished Product Processing represents 5% or less of the total production volume of the facility and the facility cannot track the energy use of the two facility types separately. In that case the Finished Product Processing energy use is reported as a part of the Finished Product Assembler facility type data. In the case that the two are combined energyseparate will have a value of no.

Domestic energy use is either reported as a part of production use, in the case that a facility cannot separate the energy usage, or separately.

You can determine whether a facility is reporting energy values split between domestic and production or combined by looking at the ref_id ensourcetracksepdomprod an answer of no means the facility is reporting combined (row 3 in the table below) and yes means separated (rows 1 and 2 in the table below). Because a facility will never report using both methods they may safely be summed without risk of double counting.

Raw energy use is reported in the follow ref_ids:

Where the wildcards [1] and [2] represent the energy source and facility type which may be any of the following values:

So the raw value for energy usage of coal water slurry in Raw Material Collection & Bulk Refining for production would be found in either the ref_id ensourcerawMaterialCollectionquantprodensourcecoalwaterslurry or ensourcerawMaterialCollectionquantensourcecoalwaterslurry the former if ensourcetracksepdomprod is yes and the latter if it is no and, in that case, combined with domestic energy use but it is never the case that the energy usage can be found under both ref_ids.

Conversion to MJ

All domestic and production energy sources are converted into MJ from the reported unit in calculations with the ref_id form of

The wild cards [1] and [2] are the energy source and facility type as above.

Energy units (kWh, MJ, mmBTU, BTU, Joule) convert directly. Mass and volume units are converted to MJ using the following energy densities which, where possible, represent the lower heating value (LHV) of the source and, regardless, use either the best available energy density or a proxy deemed as sufficiently representative. The source and conversion formula behind each density are recorded with the value in Cascale’s shared reference data, which is published with the Higg Assessment Model, and are left out here for space:

Sources without a listed energy density (purchased electricity and the onsite renewable electricity sources) may only be reported in energy units.

The exceptions to the table are districtheating, steampurch, chilledwater, diesel and biodiesel.

District heating may be reported in energy or volume units. For volume units the energy density is calculated from the difference between the temperature of the heated water received at the facility and the temperature of the water exiting, ensourcedistrictheatingrectemp and ensourcedistrictheatingexittemp (°C), as (rectemp − exittemp) × 0.0041868 MJ/l (districtheating_mj_per_liter). Whatever the reporting unit, the result is divided by an assumed generation and distribution efficiency of 0.8, so 1 MJ of district heating consumed is reported as 1.25 MJ.

Purchased steam may be reported in energy or mass units (volume is not allowed). For mass units the energy density in MJ/kg is read from steam tables using the reported pressure and temperature of each steam source (ensteampressure, ensteampressureuom, ensteamtemp on the rows one, two, three of the steam source table) and divided by the same 0.8 efficiency; the per-source densities are combined into steam_mj_per_kg weighted by each source’s share ensteamsourcepct. steam_is_vapor checks that every reported pressure and temperature pair can be steam at all. Steam reported directly in energy units is taken as reported, without the efficiency adjustment.

Purchased chilled water may only be reported in energy units. The reported energy is divided by an assumed coefficient of performance of 3.0, so 1 MJ of chilled water consumed is reported as 1/3 MJ.

Diesel and biodiesel blends are separated so that the reported MJ represent only diesel and only biodiesel rather than the blends as delivered. If endieselmix is yes, enbiodieselpercent is the percentage of biodiesel in the facility’s diesel and that share of the diesel quantity is moved to biodiesel. If enbiodieselmix is yes, enbiodieselmixpercent is the percentage of biodiesel in the facility’s biodiesel and the remainder is moved to diesel. The moved quantity is converted with the density of the fuel it is moved to.

Restated: the reported MJ for the secondary sources district heating, purchased steam (mass units) and chilled water include an assumption about generation efficiency, and this carries through every aggregate that reports energy for those sources.

Conversion to kg CO2e

The kg CO2e emitted through the use of all domestic and production energy sources is calculated and reported with the ref_id form of

The wild cards [1] and [2] are the energy source and facility type as above.

Each kg CO2e value is the corresponding MJ value multiplied by a single emission factor. The default factors are the FEM 2025 values of Cascale’s shared reference data, which also records the source of each factor and is published with the Higg Assessment Model. The table lists every source that appears in FEM 2025, including the sources that can only be selected as part of a purchased renewables, EAC, steam or biomass mix:

All emission factors are kg CO2e per MJ

The exceptions are electricpurch, chilledwater, purchrenew, steampurch, biomasscert and biomassgen, whose emissions are calculated with a factor other than a single default.

electricpurch and chilledwater use the facility’s country grid emission factor (country_ef, selected by sitecountry). The country grid emission factors are updated when possible for each FEM cadence, are licensed from IEA, and may not be disclosed by Cascale. Facilities may still report a self-declared electricity factor in enghgefelecpurchwquant; since FEM 2024 it is collected but not used in any calculation.

Facilities reporting the use of purchrenew, steampurch, biomasscert or biomassgen may report the mix of sources used to generate that energy (ensourcepurchrenewmix, ensteammix, ensourcebiomasscertmix, ensourcebiomassgenmix, each with a percentage table). When the mix question is answered yes the emission factor is the percentage-weighted average of the factors in the table above for the reported sources (purchrenewmix_ef, steampurchmix_ef, biomass_cert_ef, biomass_gen_ef); the unknown-source renewable (renewunknown) contributes the country grid factor. Otherwise the default from the table is used: 0 for purchased renewables, 0.0953 for steam (coal) and 0.1139 for biomass. The zero factor for purchased renewables is the FEM’s market-style treatment of contracted renewable electricity (see Scope): the same MWh would carry the country grid factor in a location-based inventory. In FDM 2025 the biomass mix questions are not asked, so FDM always applies the default biomass factor.

Vehicle Energy Use

Raw vehicle energy use is reported in the ref_ids ensourcequantvehicle[1] for the quantity and ensourceunitvehicle[1] for the unit of measure. The wildcard [1] is the energy source as found in the following table:

The MJ used and kg CO2e emissions are calculated as per the “Production and Domestic Energy Use” section with the ref_id formats ensourcequantvehicle[1]_mj and ensourcequantvehicle[1]_kgco2e. The wildcard [1] represents the energy source.

The following special cases modify the MJ calculations:

Diesel and biodiesel blends are separated as for facility use. If endieselvechicle is yes, endieselvechiclemix is the percentage of biodiesel in the vehicle diesel and that share is moved to biodiesel; if enbiodieselvehicle is yes, enbiodieselvehiclemix is the percentage of biodiesel in the vehicle biodiesel and the remainder is moved to diesel. (The ref_ids endieselvechicle and endieselvechiclemix are spelled as shown.)

Petrol and ethanol blends are separated the same way. If enpetrolvehicle is yes, enpetrolvehiclemix is the percentage of ethanol in the petrol and that share is moved to ethanol; if enethanolvehicle is yes, enethanolvehiclemix is the percentage of ethanol in the ethanol source and the remainder is moved to petrol. The reported percentages are volume shares: when the quantity is reported in mass or volume units they are applied directly, and when it is reported in energy units they are first converted to an energy share using an ethanol-to-petrol energy density ratio of 0.666.

Vehicle energy sources use the same energy densities and emission factors as production/domestic sources. Several sources are reported for vehicles only and have the following values:

Energy Density

Emission Factor

Note: FEM reports on emissions from scope 1 and 2 only so the scope 3 emissions for hydrogen are not in scope.

Wastewater Treatment

Biogenic carbon emissions from wastewater treatment expressed in terms of kg CO2e may be found in the aggregate calculation under the ref_id biogenicCO2e. It is the sum of wwTreatmentCO2e, calculated for the facility’s biological treatment as a whole, and wwProcessCO2e, the sum over the reported biological sub-processes. biogenicCO2e is not included in any of the GHG totals described under Aggregates.

The US EPA reference for estimating biogenic emissions (Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation Methodologies for Biogenic Emissions from Selected Source Categories, 2010, chapter 3) is the source of the method, which was introduced in FEM 2023 and is unchanged in FEM 2025.

The following emission formulas are used:

CO2 Emission Formula:

CO2 = 10^−6 × Qww × OD × EffOD × CFCO2 × [(1−MCFww × BGCH4 )(1−λ)]

CH4 Emission Formula:

CH4 = 10^−6 × Qww × OD × EffOD × CFCH4 × [(MCFww × BGCH4 )(1−λ)]

Where

• CO2 = CO2 emission rate (Mg CO2/hr)
• CH4 = CH4 emission rate (Mg CH4/hr)
• 10^-6 = Units conversion factor (Mg/g)
• QWW = Wastewater influent flow rate (m3/hr)
• OD = Oxygen demand of influent wastewater to the biological treatment unit determined as either BOD5 or COD (mg/L = g/m3)
• EffOD = Oxygen demand removal efficiency of the biological treatment unit
• CFCO2 = Conversion factor for maximum CO2 generation per unit of oxygen demand
• 44/32 = 1.375 g CO2/ g oxygen demand
• CFCH4 = Conversion factor for maximum CH4 generation per unit of oxygen demand
• 16/32 = 0.5 g CH4/ g oxygen demand
• MCFWW = methane correction factor for wastewater treatment unit, indicating the fraction of the influent oxygen demand that is converted anaerobically in the wastewater treatment unit
• BGCH4 = Fraction of carbon as CH4 in generated biogas (default is 0.65)
• λ = Biomass yield (g C converted to biomass/g C consumed in the wastewater treatment process).

The defaults for MCFww and λ are taken from Table 3-1 of the EPA reference:

The inputs are the annual discharged volume wwtrack[1]amt (m3) and the BOD5 concentrations before and after treatment wwbiological[1]pretreat and wwbiologicalp[1]posttreat (mg/L), where the wild card [1] is the wastewater type (domestic, industrial or combined). Sub-processes are reported on the rows sub1 to sub10 of the biological sub-process table with their type wwprocessindicate, and BOD5 before and after the sub-process, wwprocesspretreat and wwprocessposttreat.

For a given facility the treatment type used to assign values from the table above (wwTreatmentApplicability) is determined by applying the following logic to the values given for wwbiologicalp[1]process:

For sub process calculations the process type given by the facility is used.

The per-treatment-type constants used by the calculations are the bracketed terms of the formulas multiplied by the conversion factors, in g per g of oxygen demand: aerobic 0.61875 CO2 and 0 CH4, anaerobic 0.594 CO2 and 0.234 CH4, facultative 1.19625 CO2 and 0.065 CH4 (aerobicTreatmentIntensityCO2 and so on), with methaneGWP = 27.2.

Implementation note (September 2026). The current calculation departs from the formulas above in three ways, all under review: the discharged volume is multiplied by the BOD5 removal fraction (pre − post) / pre rather than by the removed BOD5 concentration (pre − post) in g/m3, so the oxygen-demand magnitude is not applied; the per-sub-process volumes divide by the post-treatment BOD5 rather than the pre-treatment BOD5; and the aerobic CO2 constant 0.61875 corresponds to a biomass yield of 0.55 rather than the 0.65 default (which would give 0.48125). Because biogenicCO2e is not part of any GHG total, only that reported value is affected.

Refrigerants

Refrigerant use is reported in the Air Emissions section of FEM. Usage information can be found in the following ref_ids:

The wildcard [1] represents the refrigerant being reported on. The possible values may be found in the emission factor table for refrigerants that follows. FEM 2025 offers the 127 refrigerants below; earlier cadences offered a longer list.

To calculate the kg of CO2e emissions due to refrigerant usage (airrefrig[1]quant_kgco2e) the quantity of refrigerant used is converted to kg and then multiplied by the global warming potential (IPCC AR6 unless noted in the shared reference data) found in the following table. totalRefrigerantEmissions is the sum over all refrigerants.

Empty values result in a value of 0 kg CO2e per kg of refrigerant.

Purchased Renewables and EACs

Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) are reported in the FEM Energy section (ensourcepurcheac and its children). None of the aggregate calculations documented here account for them: EACs do not reduce any MJ or kg CO2e total, in contrast to purchased renewables, which do (see Scope).

Two calculations expose the EAC data for consumers who apply their own market-based accounting. eac_mj is the retired quantity ensourcepurcheacmwh converted to MJ (× 3600). eac_avoided_ghg is the kg CO2e the retired certificates would offset: the share of the facility’s purchased electricity MJ that the EACs cover (eac_mj / ensourceelectricpurchtotal) multiplied by the purchased electricity emissions (ensourceelectricpurchtotalghg), less the emissions of the certificates’ own generation mix (eacmix_ef × eac_mj, where eacmix_ef is the percentage-weighted factor of the reported EAC sources and is 0 unless biodiesel, biogas or an unknown source is reported). It is 0 when no purchased electricity is reported.

Aggregates

Note: No aggregate calculations documented here incorporate biogenic emissions from wastewater or account for EACs reported in the FEM Energy Section (ensourcepurcheac and its children).

Aggregates Existing Prior to FEM 2023

ensource[1]total

Total MJ of energy across all facility types, domestic and vehicle usage from the source represented by the wild card [1]. Vehicle usage is included where the same source exists for vehicles (for example ensourcedieseltotal includes ensourcequantvehicleenvehiclediesel_mj).

ensource[1]totalghg

Total kg CO2e of energy across all facility types, domestic and vehicle usage from the source represented by the wild card [1].

totalRenewableEmissions

Total kg CO2e across all facility types, domestic and vehicle usage from the renewable energy sources: biodiesel, biogas, both biomass sources, mini/micro-hydro, purchased renewables (facility and vehicle), solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, ethanol and renewable hydrogen.

totalNonRenewableEnergyEmissions

Total kg CO2e across all facility types, domestic and vehicle usage from the non-renewable energy sources: purchased electricity, chilled water, district heating, steam, CNG, coal, coal water slurry, diesel, fabric waste, fuel oil, LNG, LPG, natural gas, petrol, propane and non-renewable hydrogen. Does not include refrigerants.

totalRefrigerantEmissions

Total kg CO2e of emissions from refrigerants.

totalNonRenewableEmissions

totalNonRenewableEnergyEmissions plus totalRefrigerantEmissions.

totalGHGemissions

Total kg CO2e emissions from all energy sources (renewable and non-renewable) and refrigerants.

Aggregates Added in FEM 2023

domestic_total_mj

Total MJ of energy used for domestic purposes. Only has a value if the facility reported production and domestic usage separately.

domestic_total_kgco2e

Total kg CO2e of emissions from energy used for domestic purposes. Only has a value if the facility reported production and domestic usage separately.

vehicle_total_mj

Total MJ of energy used by vehicles.

vehicle_total_kgco2e

Total kg CO2e of emissions from vehicles.

[2]_mj

Total MJ of energy used across all sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Does not include domestic or vehicle usage.

[2]_total_mj

Total MJ of energy used across all sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Includes domestic and vehicle usage divided evenly across the facility’s reported facility types (energy_adjusted_facility_type, which drops the Finished Product Processing types when energyseparate is no).

[2]_normalized_mj

Total MJ of energy used per unit produced across all sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Includes domestic and vehicle usage divided evenly across each facility type. The unit total and unit of measure can be found in sipfacilityannualprodvolquant[2] and sipfacilityannualprodvolunits[2] respectively.

[2]_kgco2e

Total kg CO2e of emissions across all energy sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Does not include domestic or vehicle usage.

[2]_total_kgco2e

Total kg CO2e of emissions produced across all energy sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Includes domestic and vehicle usage divided evenly across each facility type.

[2]_normalized_kgco2e

Total kg CO2e of emissions per unit produced across all energy sources for the facility type represented by the wild card [2]. Includes domestic and vehicle usage divided evenly across each facility type. The unit total and unit of measure can be found in sipfacilityannualprodvolquant[2] and sipfacilityannualprodvolunits[2] respectively.

Aggregates Added in FEM 2024

No new aggregate calculations were added in FEM 2024.

Aggregates Added in FEM 2025

No new aggregate calculations were added in FEM 2025. One helper was added for data consumers:

ghg_emissions_increase_from_2024_model_percent

The percentage change in totalGHGemissions attributable to the FEM 2025 emission factor model changes (chilled water, district heating, steam, fabric waste, LPG, propane, petrol and unknown-source purchased renewables) if they were applied to the same answers under the FEM 2024 model. It does not include the effect of the annual grid factor update. See the FEM 2025 Energy Source Changes document.

Additional Aggregates

Additional aggregations may be found in exports and other reporting. They are documented in the data dictionary or report specific documentation as appropriate.