Some of my staff take the train on some days and drive on others. How does the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's distance-based commuting formula handle that?
Give each person a commuting profile: trips a week by each mode, one-way distance and weeks worked. Distance by mode is one-way kilometres times 2 times days a week times weeks, added across staff. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol's three-person example totals 3,072 kilograms.
What to ask each person
- Distance travelled per day, or home and office locations.
- Days a week they use each vehicle type.
- Commuting days a week and weeks worked a year.
- Region of residence and work, if the company operates in several countries.
- Whether a significant car-pooling scheme runs, the share of staff using it and the average occupancy per vehicle.
- If you include teleworking, the energy used at home.
The arithmetic
In Example 7.1 the guide works it as one-way distance x 2 x trips a week by that mode x weeks worked; Formula 7.1 states it as commuting days a year. Distance by mode is then added across all employees, and each total is multiplied by a factor per vehicle-kilometre or passenger-kilometre.
Teleworking is optional. The guide says to set a baseline first, the energy used whether or not the employee was at home, such as a refrigerator, and count only the extra emissions caused by working from home, such as running an air conditioner.
Who counts as an employee
The guide's footnote says employees means those of entities and facilities owned, operated or leased by the reporting company. Companies may include employees of other relevant entities, such as franchises or outsourced operations, and consultants, contractors and other people who commute to facilities the company owns and operates.
If you cannot ask everyone
The guide allows a representative sample, for example scaling answers from 1,000 of 4,000 employees to the whole workforce.
The guide's three-person example, 48 weeks a year
- Person A: rail 5 times a week, 10 kilometres. Person B: rail 4 times and car once, 10 and 15 kilometres. Person C: car 5 times, 20 kilometres
- Rail: (10 x 2 x 5 x 48) + (10 x 2 x 4 x 48) = 4,800 + 3,840 = 8,640 kilometres
- Car: (15 x 2 x 1 x 48) + (20 x 2 x 5 x 48) = 1,440 + 9,600 = 11,040 kilometres
- Emissions: (8,640 x 0.1) + (11,040 x 0.2) = 864 + 2,208 = 3,072 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
- Car is 11,040 of 19,680 kilometres, about 56 percent, but 2,208 of 3,072 kilograms, about 72 percent
Factors of 0.1 per passenger-kilometre by rail and 0.2 per vehicle-kilometre by car, and the distances, are the guide's example values, not factors to use.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, which covers your own Scope 1 and 2. It does not collect commuting answers, so profiles come from your staff.
- Commuting estimate without a survey
- Employee commuting survey for a factory
- Contract workers and your scopes
- Work from home in Category 7
Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Arithmetic multiplies out to the guide's printed 3,072.