The Underestimated Global Warming Potential of refrigerant losses in Retail Real Estate: The impact of CO2 vs. CO2e

The practice has shown that greenhouse gases other than CO2 have received far too little attention, even though they make a significant contribution to global warming. The paper focuses on the status quo of the so-called F-gases (expressed as CO2 equivalent / CO2e), which are used as coolants for air conditioning systems and industrial or commercial refrigeration. F-gases are still used today in the retail real estate sector, which have a more than 3,000 times greater impact than CO2. From a technical point of view, the use of F-gases is not in itself harmful to the climate, as they are in a closed cycle. However, despite regular maintenance, leaks do occur during use, releasing harmful CO2e into the environment. Operators seem to have become aware of this problem and switch little by little to alternative coolants, but this is hardly an issue in the wider property market. Even leading benchmarking tools, such as GRESB, do not take F-gases into account. This can, under certain circumstances, massively distort the emission reduction targets of property owners.This paper aims to show the status quo of the food retail real estate market regarding F-Gas emissions in Germany. Furthermore, these results will point out to property owners what costs they should expect in the future and, under certain circumstances, how a so-called "stranding point" can be prevented. With the CRREM Risk Assessment Tool, various sample assets (German supermarkets) are evaluated in terms of their CO2 and CO2e emissions. Afterward, the results are compared and evaluated with the country- and asset-type-specific benchmarks of CRREM. As the last step, the influence of F-gases is considered in isolation, and recommendations for action are specified. Given the increasing regulations and the growing awareness of sustainability, especially an evaluation of the CO2e emissions is urgently needed. If this is ignored, the transitory risks of buildings will increase. Action is also required as physical risks such as heatwaves are steadily growing, driving the use of increasingly expensive refrigerants. If owners are not aware of these risks, they may face high costs.