If a facility has a renewable energy certificate certified by the local government, is it okay to select that the facility uses renewable energy as an energy source as per Higg FEM 4.0?

The facility should only select the use of Purchased Renewables if the facility is directly getting the purchased energy/electricity from a renewable source, It is good that purchased energy/electricity also comes with an EAC, but in this case, the facility should not report any EACs.

If the facility is not getting renewable energy/electricity for onsite use, they should not be reporting the energy/electricity as purchased renewables, they should report it as purchased energy/electricity and then report the retired renewable energy certificates or EAC (Energy Attribute Certificates) in Q3. Would encourage the facility to refer to more detailed guidance in the How to Higg Energy section where 7 scenarios on how these could be reported are explained in more detail.

Note: If the facility does not have EAC or carbon offset, that will not stop them from advancing to level 2 and level 3.