# How can a small company estimate employee commuting emissions?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/employee-commute-msme-scope-3-estimate

Run a short survey: how each person travels, how far and how many days a week. Multiply distance by a factor for each mode and add up. Commuting is Scope 3 category 7, optional for most MSMEs, but buyers sometimes ask and a one-page survey answers it.

## The survey

- Mode: two-wheeler, car, bus, company bus, walk or cycle.
- One-way distance.
- Days a week on site.

## The calculation

Distance times two times working days times a factor per km for each mode. Published factors such as the UK government's are a reasonable start; label them as defaults.

## Company buses

A bus you own or lease and fuel is Scope 1, not commuting. A contracted bus service is commuting.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads your fuel, electricity and purchase documents into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its source.

- [Factory staff bus: Scope 1 or 3](https://senseible.earth/answers/factory-staff-bus-scope-1-or-scope-3)
- [Staff quarters electricity](https://senseible.earth/answers/staff-quarters-electricity-in-carbon-footprint)
- [Hired trucks: which scope](https://senseible.earth/answers/hired-trucks-scope-1-or-scope-3)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [UK government conversion factors for company reporting](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting), [GHG Protocol standards](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.