How to Estimate Employee Commute Data by Type

In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to accurately estimate your employees' commuting data by travel type, a vital component in measuring your organization’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint. Whether you’re looking to strengthen your company’s sustainability strategy or refine your Scope 3 GHG emissions inventory, understanding employee commute patterns is key.

This method becomes particularly essential when direct commute data is unavailable. While actual commute data is always preferable, we understand it might not always be accessible. Hence, this guide is here to help you navigate through the process of estimation, ensuring you still acquire valuable insights for your sustainability reporting.

Objective

Our mission here is to enable you to estimate your employees’ commuting emissions accurately by travel type (eg car, bus, subway, cycling, walking) for a defined time period (usually one Reporting Year).

By achieving this, you’ll be adding a crucial layer of detail to your GHG emissions calculations within Breeze, even in the absence of direct commute data.

Approach

This approach to estimating employee commute data combines a survey method with data extrapolation. You will begin by selecting a diverse sample of employees to understand varied commuting habits. A detailed survey then helps you collect data on travel types, frequency, and distances. By analyzing this information, you uncover average commuting patterns and apply these findings to the entire workforce, resulting in a comprehensive estimate ready for GHG emissions calculations in Breeze.

Guidance

To successfully navigate this process, follow these practical steps:

  1. Identify a Representative Sample: Choose a diverse group of employees that cover different roles, departments, and commuting habits to participate in the survey.
  2. Craft and Distribute the Commute Survey: Design a survey that includes questions about the frequency of commuting, modes of transportation used, and distances traveled. Ensure the survey is concise, clear, and easy to complete. Distribute the survey and encourage participation, emphasizing its importance for sustainability efforts. This survey cannot be conducted in Breeze as the platform is designed to perform GHG calculations on end data, so we recommend Google Forms or Jotform as free or low cost options.
  3. Collect and Analyze Survey Responses: After collecting the responses, analyze and aggregate the data to identify the most common commuting patterns. The data should be formatted as distance per employee per transport type for the period, as each transport type has significantly different emissions per unit of distance.
  4. Extrapolate Data to the Entire Workforce: Use the insights gained from your representative sample to estimate the commuting patterns for your entire workforce. Ensure you document your extrapolation method clearly.
  5. Input Data into Breeze: Finally, enter the estimated commuting data into Breeze, ensuring you mark it as an estimation. We recommend adding a description of how these values are calculated to the Guidance field on each of the relevant Sources, and adding Notes to the Data Points. This ensures clarity and transparency in your GHG emissions reporting.

Example

In one month, based on the survey data, you find:

  • 50 employees walk 2km daily.
  • 30 employees cycle 5km daily.
  • 40 employees drive gas-fueled cars for 15km daily.
  • 20 employees drive electric vehicles (EV) for 20km daily.
  • 60 employees take the train for 10km daily.

To calculate the annual commute data for each mode of transportation, you can follow this format:

  1. Walking:
    • 50 employees * 2km * 20 workdays/month * 12 months/year = 24,000 km/year walked
  2. Cycling:
    • 30 employees * 5km * 20 workdays/month * 12 months/year = 36,000 km/year cycled
  3. Driving (Gas):
    • 40 employees * 15km * 20 workdays/month * 12 months/year = 144,000 km/year driven by gas vehicles
  4. Driving (EV):
    • 20 employees * 20km * 20 workdays/month * 12 months/year = 96,000 km/year driven by electric vehicles
  5. Train:
    • 60 employees * 10km * 20 workdays/month * 12 months/year = 144,000 km/year traveled by train

These figures give you a comprehensive annual estimate of employee commute distances by each mode of transportation, which can be used to calculate associated GHG emissions in Breeze. Remember to ensure that the distances and frequencies used in your calculations are representative of typical commuting patterns for your workforce. These data points should be uploaded to Breeze and marked as estimated.

By following this approach, you can ensure that the data collected is representative and comprehensive, providing a solid basis for your GHG emissions calculations on Breeze.

Tips

Successfully estimating your employee commute data requires attention to detail and effective communication. Here are some tips to guide you through the process:

  1. Promote Clear Communication: Ensure that the purpose of the survey and its significance in contributing to the company’s sustainability goals are well communicated to all employees.
  2. Simplify the Survey: Design the commute survey to be straightforward and user-friendly. Avoid complex language and ensure that it can be completed in a short amount of time to encourage maximum participation.
  3. Provide Examples: Include examples in your survey to help employees understand how to accurately calculate their commute distances and identify their modes of transportation.
  4. Remind and Follow-Up: Send reminders to encourage participation and follow up with employees who have not completed the survey to ensure a high response rate.
  5. Test the Survey: Before distributing the survey to the entire sample group, conduct a pilot test with a small number of employees to identify any potential issues and make necessary adjustments.
  6. Assure Anonymity: If appropriate, assure employees that their responses will remain anonymous. This can help in obtaining honest and accurate data.
  7. Be Prepared for Variability: Understand that commuting habits can vary significantly, and be prepared to manage a wide range of responses. This is especially true in climates with significant changes by season (eg. Canada), where you may want to conduct separate surveys for summer/winter, and/or consider this variability in a single survey.
  8. Use the Data Responsibly: Ensure that the collected data is used solely for the intended purpose of estimating commute emissions and improving sustainability efforts.
  9. Show Appreciation: Thank employees for their participation and share the outcomes of the survey, highlighting its impact on the company’s sustainability initiatives.
  10. Seek Feedback: After the survey, seek feedback on the process from participants. This can provide valuable insights for improving future surveys.
  11. Seek Expert Advice if Needed: Don’t hesitate to reach out to Breeze support if you’re unsure about any part of the process.

By adhering to these tips, you will enhance the accuracy of your data, foster employee engagement, and ensure a smooth process for estimating employee commute data for GHG emissions calculations.

Resources

To bolster your efforts, here are some resources you might find helpful:

  1. GHG Protocol for Corporate GHG Accounting: This standard can help you align your commute data accounting practices with global standards (Link: GHG Protocol)
  2. Breeze Support: Contact our team to ask any questions you may have about this process.

Leveraging these resources will not only enhance the accuracy of your estimations but also align your practices with global standards.

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