ESG reporting in a serviced office: the data to ask your operator for

If your business reports on sustainability, whether for investors, customers’ supply-chain questionnaires or a voluntary framework, your office is one of the few costs where the underlying data belongs to someone else. In a serviced office, energy, water and facilities are bundled into one monthly fee, and the meters belong to the operator.

That convenience is part of the appeal of serviced space. It also means your energy and emissions figures can end up as estimates unless you ask for the data, ideally before you sign.

Why a serviced office creates a reporting gap

In a leased building, the tenant usually gets utility bills and can measure what it uses. In a serviced office, a team of 20 might share an electricity meter covering a whole floor. The operator knows the floor’s consumption; you only know your desk count. Without an agreement to share data, your report will carry an estimate where a measured figure should be.

What to request from every operator

Treat sustainability documents as part of normal due diligence, alongside the fee breakdown and the notice terms.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Ask for the certificate, not just the rating, so you can see when it was assessed. EPCs for England, Wales and Northern Ireland can be looked up on the government’s EPC register; Scotland has its own register.

Metered consumption. Ask whether the operator can give you electricity, gas and water use for your suite or floor, in kWh or cubic metres, and how often (monthly beats annual). If the meter is shared, ask how consumption is split between occupiers. A split by floor area and hours of use is far easier to defend than an equal share per licence.

Electricity sourcing. If the operator buys renewable electricity, through a power purchase agreement or with Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs), ask for the documents. They affect how you calculate your electricity emissions.

Waste and recycling. Some frameworks ask for recycling rates and waste sent to landfill. Ask whether the operator tracks these for the building and can attribute a share to you.

Building certification. If the operator claims a BREEAM, LEED or WELL rating, ask for the certificate number so you can check it. A good rating reflects the building’s design and management when it was assessed, not a live feed of your consumption.

The operator’s sustainability policy. Ask for the latest version, and check it covers the building you’re considering rather than the portfolio in general.

Commuting and location

Many companies now report emissions from staff commuting. Location drives this: a building close to rail or underground stations will usually mean lower commuting emissions than one people have to drive to. Check public transport links, cycle storage and showers when you compare options.

Make data sharing part of the agreement

Asking during the sales process helps; putting it in the agreement is better. Consider asking your solicitor to include a clause that the operator will:

• provide metered or apportioned energy figures for your suite within a set number of days after each quarter
• give them in units your reporting framework uses
• tell you if metering or supply changes in a way that affects your figures
• provide an updated EPC if the current one expires during your term

Ask the operator what systems they use to track and share data. Their answer will tell you whether they can realistically do it.

Comparing operators

A simple way to compare what you’re offered:

• Full disclosure: suite- or floor-level metered data each quarter, a current EPC rated C or better, a published carbon-reduction target, and verifiable building certification.
• Partial disclosure: building-level data with a stated method for splitting it, a current EPC and a published policy; data once a year on request.
• No structured disclosure: no consumption data, no EPC to hand and no policy. Any figure you report will be an estimate.

An operator with no data isn’t automatically the wrong choice. If your reporting duties are light, price, location and the space itself may matter more. The point is to make that trade-off knowingly, not discover the gap after you’ve moved in.

If you’re already in a serviced office

Send your operator one written request for four things: the building’s EPC, your suite or floor’s electricity use for the last 12 months in kWh, how the electricity is sourced, and their sustainability policy. Note when you sent it and when they reply; it will help when you next report, and when you decide whether to renew.

If you’re starting a search, put these four items in your brief so the question is answered before you commit. Send us your brief and we’ll include them when we approach operators. Offices.co.uk is paid by the operator when a client we introduce moves in; you don’t pay us.