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If you want to understand the environmental impact of your company’s travel, you must identify emission sources, and whether you’re responsible for them. Then you need to collect and analyse your travel data, to determine which emission factors to apply.
Unfortunately, it’s a tall ask. From mileage claims, to booking confirmations, to your telematics database, there’s a ton of data to collate and organise which can be manual and time-consuming. Plus, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of emissions factors.
To help, we’ve made a simple guide on how to calculate company travel emissions, so that you can report with confidence.
Getting started
When you’re calculating your company carbon footprint, you categorise emissions into three scopes using the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. It’s the most widely used international accounting tool; helping organisations to reduce their emissions. By assigning scopes, organisations can understand where emissions are sourced from and who is responsible for their reduction.
The three scopes detail the emissions your company has control over, and the ones that result from your wider operations and value chain.
Scope 1: All direct GHG emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by a reporting company, including boiler combustion, furnaces, industrial gases, and mobile combustion in fleet vehicles.
Scope 2: Emissions resulting from another entity, as an indirect consequence of your company's operations. They derive from purchased energy, including electricity, heat, steam, and cooling.
Scope 3: All other indirect emissions resulting from a company’s complete value chain including purchased materials and services, use of sold goods, employee commuting and business travel, waste disposal, and water consumption.
Which scopes relate to company travel?
To calculate company travel emissions, you need to look at both scope 1 and scope 3.
Scope 1: Mobile Emissions
GHG emissions generated by all company-owned or operated vehicles and equipment, through combustion while moving from one location to another. When a company doesn’t own or have direct operational control of vehicles or equipment, the sources are instead reported as scope 3.
Common mobile combustion sources include company cars or fleet vehicles, delivery and distribution vehicles, forklifts, and construction equipment.
Scope 3 Business Travel Emissions
These emissions stem from the transportation of employees for business-related activities in vehicles owned or operated by third parties.
Emissions from business travel may arise from air travel, rail travel, bus travel, hotel stays or car travel, including business travel in rental cars or employee-owned vehicles but not from the commute to work.
Under the GHG Protocol, emissions from leased vehicles and employee commuting are accounted for in scope 3, however they are not considered ‘Business Travel’, and instead come under ‘Upstream leased assets’ and ‘Employee commuting’, respectively. This is an important distinction, as only Scope 3 Business Travel is required for companies reporting under the SECR initiative.
How to calculate emissions
Scope 1 Mobile Emissions
To calculate the GHG emissions from mobile combustion, you need to collect data for:
- the amount of fuel consumed
- distance travelled
- the vehicle type
- the fuel characteristics of identified sources
These data points allow you to identify the relevant emission factor for each source. You then apply the formula:
∑ (volume of fuel by vehicle type (l/m3/kWh) × fuel emission factor (kg CO2 e/volume)
You need to calculate it for every vehicle in your organization. It’s vital to maintain a log of your fuel use per vehicle, as a legislated requirement for most carbon reporting standards.
Scope 3 Business Travel Emissions
There are various ways to calculate business travel emissions:
Fuel-based method: Determine how much fuel is consumed during business travel (i.e., scope 1 and scope 2 emissions of transport providers) and apply the appropriate emission factor for that fuel.
Distance-based method: If data on fuel is unavailable companies can use the distance method. Determine the distance and mode of transport of the business trips, then apply the appropriate emission factor for the mode used.
Spend-based method: Calculate how much money is spent on each type of business travel transport and apply a secondary emission factor.
Hotel stays: Multiply the number of hotel nights by the emission factor of the hotel, measured in kilograms of CO2e emitted per hotel night.
How to increase accuracy
The choice of emission factors is vast, and it can be tough to ensure that you’ve applied the correct one.
To decide, you need to collect multiple data points to increase the accuracy of your calculations. Where possible, you should consider:
- Countries of travel, as transportation emission factors vary between countries
- Specific vehicle types from the transport provider; for example, electric trains would have a lower emission factor than diesel trains
- The number of passengers; car sharing saves resources
- The travel class, as first-class typically emits more kgCO2e than a standard ticket
- The journey type; for example, the emission factors vary between short-haul or long-haul flights
Much like Scope 1 Mobile Emissions, Scope 3 Business Travel needs to be fully and accurately recorded. Over a year of operations, the amount of necessary data really adds up. It’s important to maintain a record as you go, so that your team are not overwhelmed by manual time-consuming tasks for reporting.
We can help
Whether you’re looking for an efficient way to track your business travel and purchases emissions, or you need support with your SECR reporting, accountabl can help.
Our revolutionary expense management system automates and simplifies your company travel emissions reporting. We have integrated GHG calculations into our mileage reimbursement tools so that you don’t need to worry about logging data and applying the right emission factor.
Plus, it imports your financial data into your accounting system, and exports your company travel data into compliant emissions reports, shining a light on your bottom-line and environmental impact.
See for yourself and try accountabl for free for 30-days.
We also offer straightforward consulting covering scope 1, 2, and 3 emission measurement and reporting, custom reduction plans including science-based targets, carbon literacy training for employees, and more, so you can offload the longwinded carbon calculations and difficult strategic decarbonisation decisions.
