Décret tertiaire: the energy-saving obligation for commercial buildings in France, and the OPERAT declaration

What is the décret tertiaire?

The décret tertiaire, now called Éco Énergie Tertiaire, obliges the owners and tenants of commercial and public service buildings in France to cut their final energy consumption. It comes from article 175 of the ELAN law of 23 November 2018 and Decree No 2019-771 of 23 July 2019, and is set out in articles L. 174-1 and R. 174-22 to R. 174-32 of the French construction and housing code. The detailed rules are in the order of 10 April 2020, as amended.

It is about energy, not greenhouse gases: the targets are in kilowatt hours of final energy per square metre per year. A change of energy, however, must not increase the building’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Which buildings are covered?

The obligation applies to private and public tertiary activities, whatever the year the building was put into service, in three cases. The owner and, where there is one, the tenant are both responsible, and agree between them in their contracts who does what.

• A building with 1,000 m² or more used only for tertiary activities.
• The parts of a mixed-use building that host tertiary activities, when together they reach 1,000 m² or more.
• A group of buildings on the same plot or site whose tertiary floor area adds up to 1,000 m² or more.

The targets: 40%, 50% and 60%

For each deadline, a building or part of a building must meet one of two targets: a relative target, cutting final energy consumption by at least 40% by 2030, 50% by 2040 and 60% by 2050 against a reference year, or an absolute target, a consumption level in kWh per m² per year set by order for each type of activity, based on what new buildings in that category use.

You choose the reference year, but it cannot be earlier than 2010; for buildings covered from the start, it lies between 2010 and 2022. If you have not declared it by 30 September 2027, it is set for you from the consumption already on OPERAT. Consumption is adjusted for the weather, and results can be pooled across all or part of a property portfolio.

The yearly declaration on OPERAT

Every year, the previous calendar year’s consumption is declared on OPERAT, the platform run by ADEME, by 30 September: the 2025 consumption is due by 30 September 2026. You declare each building or part of a building with its floor area and activity, and its consumption per energy: electricity, gas, heating and cooling networks, fuel oil and other fuels.

You can delegate the declaration to a colleague or a service provider, but you stay responsible for the data. You can also let ADEME collect your meter data from the network operators, such as Enedis for electricity and GRDF for gas, and since summer 2023 other software can declare through the OPERAT API. If bills are missing for the reference year, the network operators can supply the data; the last three years are the easiest to get.

Modulation, the attestation and sanctions

A few rules decide what happens when a target is hard to meet, and what happens when nothing is declared.

• Modulation: a target can be adjusted for the type and volume of activity, for technical, architectural or heritage constraints, or for costs clearly out of proportion to the savings. For the cost case, a technical file must be filed on OPERAT within five years of the first declaration, which for buildings covered from the start means by 30 September 2027.
• Attestation: after each yearly declaration, OPERAT produces a digital attestation with your consumption and targets. You must make it available to staff and, where relevant, the public, for example on a notice board or through a QR code.
• Sanctions: after formal notice, the State can publish the names of those who do not meet their obligations. A fine of up to €1,500 for a person and €7,500 for a company applies when, having missed a target, you do not submit an action plan or do not follow it.

Décret tertiaire, BEGES and your carbon footprint

The décret tertiaire counts energy; the BEGES, which French companies with more than 500 employees publish every four years, counts greenhouse gases. Both start from the same bills: the electricity, gas, heat and fuel each site uses. Keeping that consumption per site, with the invoices behind it, serves both, and it is also the base of your Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

Doing it in Greener Ahead

Greener Ahead does not declare on OPERAT: you, or the person you delegate, declare there. Carbon accounting reads your energy bills for you and keeps each site’s electricity, gas, heat and fuel use with the invoice behind it, the records the OPERAT declaration also needs, and turns them into your carbon footprint and, in BEGES mode, your BEGES. Carbon accounting costs €1,495 a year excluding VAT, with unlimited users, and you can try it free for 14 days without a card.

The targets by deadline

Each building or part of a building meets either the relative or the absolute target at each deadline.

Dates to keep

OPERAT stays open after the deadline for late declarations, but a late declaration is still late.