Scope 3 Category 7: Employee Commuting
Category 7 (employee commuting) covers the emissions from employees travelling between their homes and regular workplaces. It is typically a mid-tier Scope 3 category by size but one of the most tractable to reduce through workplace policies, remote working, and travel benefits.
Category 7 (employee commuting) covers the emissions from employees travelling between their homes and regular workplaces. Category 7 covers employee commuting emissions — the GHG emissions from employees travelling between their homes and their primary workplace.
What Category 7 covers
Category 7 covers employee commuting emissions — the GHG emissions from employees travelling between their homes and their primary workplace. This includes all transport modes: private cars (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric); public transport (bus, metro, tram, suburban rail); cycling (zero emission but e-bikes have a small battery charging emission); motorcycles; and walking (zero emission).
Remote work energy use: The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard includes an optional element for Category 7 — the energy consumed by employees working from home. Home office energy use (heating, cooling, lighting, device charging) that substitutes for office energy use is a Category 7 item. Most companies omit this element due to data collection difficulty — disclose the omission if you exclude home working emissions.
Category 7 boundary: Only regular commuting is included — occasional travel to work from home is Category 6 (business travel). Define 'regular workplace' consistently — employees who split time between multiple offices or between home and office need a methodology for allocation.
Data collection — the commuting survey approach
Unlike most Scope 3 categories, Category 7 data cannot be extracted from procurement or finance systems. The primary data collection method is an employee commuting survey.
Survey content: commute distance (one-way km); transport mode used (and percentage by mode for mixed commutes); commuting frequency (days per week in office); and vehicle type for car commuters (petrol, diesel, hybrid, EV) to apply accurate emission factors.
Survey design: annual surveys with a representative sample (minimum 30% response rate) are typical for large employers. For smaller companies, full population surveys are feasible. Weight responses by location, seniority, and function to extrapolate to the full headcount.
Alternative data sources: some companies use postcode-to-workplace distance calculations and national travel survey mode share data as a proxy for commuting surveys — this avoids survey burden but introduces significant estimation error (±30–50%). CDP and ESRS assurers increasingly expect primary survey data for material Category 7.
Remote working and Category 7 — the post-COVID reality
Hybrid working has fundamentally changed Category 7 for knowledge workers. Employees who previously commuted five days per week may now commute two or three days — reducing Category 7 by 40–60%.
For Category 7 calculation: use actual commuting frequency from your survey data, not assumed five days per week. For companies with formal hybrid working policies, use the policy frequency as a proxy if survey data is unavailable.
The remote work energy offset: GHG Protocol allows optional inclusion of the energy used for home working. If employees work from home two days per week instead of commuting, their home energy use increases but their commuting emissions decrease. For most geographies, the commuting emission reduction exceeds the home energy increase — hybrid working typically reduces net Category 7 + home energy emissions.
For ESRS disclosure: if remote working has materially reduced Category 7, quantify the reduction and include it in your ESRS E1-3 climate action disclosure. Remote working policy is an inexpensive, quickly implementable Scope 3 reduction action with co-benefits for employee satisfaction and talent retention.
Frequently asked questions
Do we include commuting emissions for part-time employees?
Yes — include all employees in Category 7, weighted by their actual commuting frequency. Part-time employees commuting three days per week contribute 60% of the emissions of a full-time employee with the same commute distance and mode. Your survey should capture commuting frequency to enable accurate weighting.
What emission factor do we use for electric vehicle commuting?
Use the location-based grid emission factor for the country where the employee charges their vehicle — typically at home using the national grid mix. Apply the DEFRA or IEA grid factor for the reporting year. Electric vehicle commuting emissions are significantly lower than petrol/diesel but not zero in most countries.
How do we handle employees who commute to different offices?
For employees with multiple regular work locations, calculate commuting emissions based on their actual commuting pattern — the weighted average of commutes to each location weighted by frequency of attendance. For most employees, one primary workplace dominates and the calculation is straightforward.