This category includes emissions from the transportation of employees between their homes and worksites. This covers private and public modes of transport e.g. car and rail travel. Companies should include emissions from teleworking (i.e., employees working remotely) in this category.
Scope of emissions source
How this Category aligns to carbon accounting standards
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is an internationally recognized go-to standard for estimating and reporting corporate GHG emissions. GHG emissions are categorised into three 'Scopes'.
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions – not included in scope 2 – that occur in the value chain of the reporting company. In other words, the emissions that are linked to the company’s operations. Activities covered by scope 3 emissions are diverse, but sit in two high level categories:
Upstream emissions are indirect emissions related to purchased or acquired goods and services (all the emissions occurring to the point of receipt by the company: material sourcing and pre-processing)
Downstream emissions are indirect emissions related to sold goods and services (all the emissions occurring after being sold by the reporting company: distribution, storage, use, end-of-life)
The Cozero category, Employee commuting, is an upstream source of scope 3 emissions, as defined by the GHG Protocol. All emission calculation methodologies follow the requirements for this scope of emission accounting.
Summary of calculation methods
Here are the different calculation methods available on the Log to calculate scope 3 emissions from Employee commuting. These methods are listed in order of how specific the calculation is. Users should choose the method that is the most appropriate to the data available to them, to their business goals and the significance of the emissions of the category.
Fuel Consumption Method
Emissions are estimated by collecting data on the quantity of fuel used by employees to commute from their home to the office during the reporting period and multiplying by the relevant emission factor.
Activity data: volume of fuel or electricity (in case of electric means of transport) used by employees in kWh. The Log provides conversion of other units.
Emission factor: the Log is providing a default fuel emission factor (kgCO2e/kWh) but users can also enter supplier-specific emission factors.
How to report emissions on Cozero?
Step 1: Select the Log called Employee commuting
Step 2: Select the sub-category - means of transport - you want to report on (e.g. Taxi, bus, etc)
Step 3: Select additional levels of details
Step 4: Enter the quantity of fuel or electricity for the means of transport
Step 5: (If available, amend the emission factor with your own supplier-specific emission factor)
The Log will automatically calculate the emissions for the quantity of fuel entered.
Distance Method
Emissions are estimated by collecting data on the total distance travelled by employees to commute from their home to the office during the reporting period and multiplying by the relevant emission factor.
Activity data options:
Total distance travelled in km for all your employees per means of transport
Distance per day per employees per means of transport and number of working days
Number of journey per means of transport
Note that commuting always includes back and forth travel. The Log also provides conversion if your data are not in km.
Emission factor: the Log is providing a default distance emission factor (kgCO2e/vehicle-km or kgCO2e/passenger-km) but users can also enter supplier-specific emission factors.
How to report emissions on Cozero?
Step 1: Select the Log called Employee commuting
Step 2: Select the sub-category - means of transport - you want to report on (e.g. Taxi, bus, etc)
Step 3: Select additional levels of details
Step 4: Enter the activity data you have available for the means of transport
Step 5: (If available, amend the emission factor with your own supplier-specific emission factor)
The Log will automatically calculate the emissions for the distance entered.
Direct emission input
Users can enter the amount of emissions in CO2e directly in the log. They need to make sure of the accuracy of data used in this estimation.
Special case - Home office emissions
There have been significant changes in the way we do business in the last few years and businesses need to adapt to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support a shift to remote workforce. Therefore, when your employees are working remotely, there are still emissions that you need to report on (e.g. electricity and heat consumption).
General approach
Are accounted as home office emissions, the emissions that would have not occurred in an office-working scenario - the additional emissions resulting from working at home, e.g. emissions from a fridge won’t be accounted for.
Home office emissions include electricity consumption from office equipment and lighting as well as heat consumption. Because it might be challenging for companies to collect these data, we are providing assumptions for these values.
Activity data options:
Total number of days working at home and location of employees
Number of hours worked at home and location of employees
Direct emission input
The Log will automatically calculate the emissions for the activity data entered.
Emissions factor: the Log will provide a default emissions factor for electricity and heat consumption.
How to report emissions on Cozero?
Step 1: Select the Log called Employee commuting
Step 2: Select the sub-category called Home office
Step 3: Enter the available data that you have
The Log will automatically calculate the emissions for home office emissions.
Where can I find data?
Activity Data: Companies could collect data on Employee commuting habits through a survey. Type of data collect include:
Distance travelled by employees per day, or home and office location,
Number of days per week that employees use transport types (e.g. subway, car, bus, train, bicycle, etc.)
Number of commuting days per week and number of weeks worked per year
For car-pooling scheme, the proportion of employees using the scheme and the average occupancy per vehicle
Companies can also use a representative sample of their employees and then extrapolate the result of the survey to the whole company.
Supplier-Specific Emission Factors: It is possible for users to customize the emission factors used to calculate emissions. Most of the time, it is recommended to customize the emission factors if you can obtain emission factors from your suppliers. Supplier-specific data is the most accurate because it relates to the specific activity purchased by the reporting company (e.g. electricity, goods and services, etc.).
Users may send survey to the relevant suppliers requesting the following information:
Product life cycle GHG emissions data (following the GHG Protocol Product Standard)
A description of the methodologies used to quantify the emissions and a description of the data sources used (e.g. emission factors)
Whether the data has been assured or verified and, if so, the type of assurance achieved (preference should be given to verified data)
Ratio of primary and secondary data used to calculate the emission factor
If possible, the data provided by the supplier should be for the same time interval as the company’s inventory.
Note that data quality is an iterative process and should be built over time. Therefore there is no need to have the perfect data right away. For more information on data collection see the articles on data sourcing.
FAQ
For additional information on the calculation of scope 3 emissions, users can refer to the GHG Protocol Guidance. Please get in touch with our team if there is a frequent need to make use of this Log emission category and you require additional support in the calculation of emissions.