How Do I Collect Data for Employee Commuting Emissions?

What is employee commuting?

Employee commuting refers to the greenhouse gas emissions generated when employees travel between their home and their normal workplace. It's one of the most common categories companies need to account for when preparing an ESG report, yet it's also one of the most misunderstood.

Employees commute in many different ways, and each method has a different emissions profile. Common transportation methods include:

• Car (petrol, diesel, or hybrid)
• Electric vehicle
• Bus
• Train
• Bicycle
• Walking
• Motorcycle
• Carpooling with colleagues

Some of these methods produce zero direct emissions, such as walking or cycling. Others, like driving alone in a petrol car, tend to produce the highest emissions per person. Because every company has a different mix of employees, locations, and commuting habits, there's no shortcut that works for everyone — which is exactly why collecting real data matters.

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Scope 1 vs Scope 3: why the distinction matters

This is the part that trips up most companies working on their ESG report for the first time, so it's worth explaining clearly.

Scope 3: employee commuting

Employee commuting emissions belong in Scope 3 of the GHG Protocol. Scope 3 covers indirect emissions that occur outside a company's own operations but happen as a result of the company existing — in this case, because employees need to travel to work.

The reason this sits in Scope 3 rather than Scope 1 is control. The company doesn't own the car an employee drives to work, doesn't decide whether they take the train or cycle, and doesn't control the fuel efficiency of their personal vehicle. Employees make their own transportation choices, generally using assets outside the company's operational control.

Typical Scope 3 employee commuting examples:

• An employee drives their own car to the office.
• An employee leases or owns their personal vehicle.
• An employee takes public transport such as a bus or train.
• An employee cycles to work.
• An employee walks to work.

Scope 1: company-owned vehicles

Scope 1 emissions cover direct emissions from sources the company owns or directly controls. This is where company vehicles come in — and it's important not to confuse these with employee commuting.

If a vehicle is owned or controlled by the company, the fuel burned in that vehicle counts as a Scope 1 emission, not employee commuting. Examples include:

• Company pool cars kept at the office
• Service vans used for client visits
• Delivery vehicles
• Other company-owned operational vehicles

The logic here is straightforward: because the company owns or controls the vehicle and decides how it's fuelled and used, the emissions fall under the company's direct operational responsibility — Scope 1 — rather than Scope 3.

A practical note on company cars

Company car arrangements can sit in a genuine grey area. Under the GHG Protocol, whether a company car counts as Scope 1 or Scope 1/Scope 3 combined can depend on factors like who owns the vehicle, the leasing structure, and how much operational control the company retains over its use. For example, a leased company car provided to an employee for both business and personal use may need to be treated differently than a vehicle used purely for business trips.

You don't need to become a GHG Protocol expert to get this right. As a practical rule of thumb: if the company owns, leases, or directly controls the vehicle and pays for its fuel, treat it as a company vehicle (Scope 1). If the employee owns the vehicle and simply uses it to get to and from work, treat it as employee commuting (Scope 3). If your company has more complex car arrangements — such as company cars used privately outside of work — it's worth flagging this specifically when preparing your ESG report, since it may need separate treatment.

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What data do you need to collect?

Once you know that employee commuting sits in Scope 3, the next question is: what information do you actually need from employees?

To calculate commuting emissions accurately, you typically need:

• Home-to-work distance — how far each employee travels one way
• Number of commuting days — how many days per week or month the employee actually commutes (remote work reduces this)
• Transportation method — car, bus, train, bike, walking, motorcycle, or carpool
• Vehicle type (if applicable) — for example, small car, large car, van
• Fuel type (if applicable) — petrol, diesel, electric, hybrid
• Occupancy — for carpooling, how many people typically share the journey

This might look like a lot of detail, but it doesn't need to be complicated to collect. The value comes from asking each employee directly, rather than guessing.

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Why exact data beats assumptions

It's tempting to save time by assuming, for example, that "most employees drive to work" and applying a single average distance across the whole company. The problem is that this approach can significantly distort your results.

A company with 50 employees, half of whom cycle and half of whom drive 30km each way, will have a very different emissions profile than one where everyone drives a short distance. Broad averages smooth over these differences and can make your reported emissions inaccurate — sometimes overstating them, sometimes understating them.

Real data, collected directly from employees, gives you a far more accurate and defensible picture, and it's what auditors and stakeholders increasingly expect to see behind ESG reporting figures.

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The biggest challenge: it's not the calculation, it's the data

Here's something that surprises a lot of companies working on employee commuting emissions for the first time: the calculation itself is the easy part. Multiplying a distance by an emissions factor for a given transport mode is straightforward once you have the right numbers.

The real challenge is collecting reliable data from employees in the first place.

Without a proper process, many companies fall back on shortcuts:

• Guessing how employees commute based on general impressions
• Using generic averages pulled from national statistics rather than their own workforce
• Estimating distances roughly, rather than asking employees directly

Each of these shortcuts reduces the quality and credibility of your ESG report. If your commuting figures are based on guesswork, that weakness can ripple through your entire Scope 3 emissions total, since employee commuting is often one of the larger categories for office-based businesses.

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The best solution: a structured employee questionnaire

The most practical and reliable way to solve the data collection problem is a structured employee questionnaire.

Rather than trying to estimate commuting patterns from the outside, a questionnaire lets every employee report their own actual commuting behaviour, including:

• How they commute (car, bus, train, bike, walking, motorcycle, carpool)
• How often they commute per week or month
• Their approximate home-to-work distance
• Vehicle type and fuel type, if relevant
• Whether they carpool, and with how many people

Because each employee answers based on their own real routine, the resulting dataset reflects your actual workforce rather than a generic assumption.

This matters for two reasons. First, it produces materially better data quality, which strengthens the credibility of your ESG report. Second, it's efficient — a single round of responses gives you what you need for the whole reporting period, rather than requiring ongoing manual tracking.

A well-designed questionnaire should be short enough that employees can complete it in a few minutes, while still capturing the details needed for an accurate calculation.

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How Wardn simplifies employee commuting reporting

Collecting commuting data manually — chasing employees for answers, compiling spreadsheets, and calculating emissions by hand — is exactly the kind of task that turns ESG reporting into a burden for small and medium-sized businesses.

Wardn includes a built-in employee commuting questionnaire designed to remove this friction. In practice, the process looks like this:

1. Generate a questionnaire directly inside the Wardn platform.
2. Share a link with employees, for example via email or an internal messaging tool.
3. Employees complete it at their own pace, answering questions about how they commute, how often, and their approximate distance.
4. Wardn automatically aggregates the responses into a structured dataset.
5. The data flows directly into your ESG report, correctly categorised under Scope 3 employee commuting.

This means you don't need to build a survey from scratch, manually chase down responses in spreadsheets, or work out the emissions calculations yourself. The questionnaire handles data collection, and Wardn handles the aggregation and reporting — so you can focus on understanding your results rather than wrestling with the process of gathering them.

For companies just starting their ESG reporting journey, this is a good example of a category that seems daunting at first but becomes manageable once you have the right process and the right tool in place.

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Frequently asked questions

Is employee commuting Scope 1 or Scope 3?

Employee commuting is a Scope 3 emissions category. It covers emissions from employees travelling between home and work using transportation the company doesn't own or control, such as their own car, public transport, cycling, or walking.

Are company cars Scope 1 or Scope 3?

Company-owned or company-controlled vehicles, such as pool cars, service vans, or delivery vehicles, are generally classified as Scope 1, because the company owns or controls the vehicle and its fuel use. However, some company car arrangements — particularly leased cars used for both business and personal travel — can be more nuanced under the GHG Protocol depending on ownership and control, so it's worth reviewing your specific arrangements.

What data do I need to calculate employee commuting emissions?

You typically need each employee's home-to-work distance, number of commuting days, transportation method, vehicle type and fuel type (if applicable), and occupancy for carpooling. Collecting this directly from employees, rather than estimating, produces far more accurate results.

Why shouldn't I just use an average commuting distance for all employees?

Using a single average across your whole workforce can significantly distort your results, since employees commute in very different ways and distances. Real, employee-reported data gives a much more accurate picture of your actual Scope 3 emissions from commuting.

What's the easiest way to collect employee commuting data?

A structured employee questionnaire is generally the most practical and reliable method. It lets every employee report their own commuting method, frequency, and distance, producing significantly better data quality than guesses or generic estimates. Wardn provides a built-in questionnaire that generates, distributes, and aggregates this data automatically, feeding it directly into your ESG report.

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