Collecting Employee commute data may require sourcing data that you don’t already have stored in ERP systems or other databases. Surveying employees can be the best way to capture this data.
This guide will explain:
Which data points are relevant for survey?
According to GHG Protocol, Employee Commute includes all emissions relating to your employees journeys to and from work as well as emissions associated with working from home (since energy related work from home emissions are not captured in your Scope 2 emissions).
Work from home
Work from home emissions are calculated using Organisational data. You will need to collect data on the number of employees who work from home and the average number of days per week they work from home.
There are a few circumstances where you may not need to survey your employees to get this data:
If you’re a fully remote company, you know everyone is working from home every day.
If you have a system in place that your employees use to book their workstations, there might be data already available.
If your employees use badges to access the facility building, there might be data you can utilise, too.
If all of this is not the case, the best option to gather the required data is via a survey.
Employee commute
Employee Commute calculation methods require gathering the type of transport employees use to get to work and the distance travelled during their commute. This data is best obtained through surveys.
How to use Plan A’s survey templates
To make things easier for you, we have created survey templates for you to use. Duplicate one of the templates below to get started.
Survey templates:
These templates are entirely customisable. We have set them up so that data can be captured for multiple calculation methods simultaneously. We recommend making the following customisations:
Replace all placeholders with your company info. Eg. Company name, facility names.
Customise the survey introduction to reflect your brand voice.
Optionally, you can pre-fill responses to some of the questions, like start and end date, before sending your employees the survey to help streamline the process. To do so, click the three dots in the top right corner, select ‘pre-fill’, input the answer you want, and share.
Review survey settings to ensure paying special attention to whether you want to collect email addresses, send a response summary, and allow for multiple response submissions.
Once you have received the survey results from all employees who are not working from home full-time, add them to our transformers (linked below) to automatically generate ready-to-upload files. Once transformed, download both sheets as a CSV file and upload them to Plan A using the data mapping tool.
Survey transformers:
Link to Google Sheets transformer workbook (only works via Google Sheets)
Link to download offline Excel transformer workbook (download to use with Excel)
When you input your data into the transformer, two tabs may populate:
Transformed distance
Transformed number of commuters
If all survey responses include distance data, only the 'Distance' tab will populate. Any survey responses that do not include distance data will instead be displayed in the 'Number of Commuters' tab.
If data appears in both tabs, you must upload each tab separately via the data mapping tool, using the corresponding calculation method for each. All files should be uploaded as a CSV for optimal results.
Instructions for creating your own template
Use the questions and recommendations below to create your own survey. Depending on the survey platform you choose to work with you should be able to download the results in a table format. The results then can be inputted into our survey transformers listed above.
Question | Response Type | Options |
1. Which office do you usually work from?
Select your primary location if you work between several | Open field – short text | Your facility names |
2. On average, how many days per week have you worked from home over the past 12 months?
Please use your best estimate and input 0-5 | Opinion scale | 0-5 |
3. How many vacation days do you have per year?
If survey period is not yearly then enter the total number of vacation days you have for the relevant survey period | Number | — |
4. What's your primary means of transportation coming to work?
If multiple modes of transports are used please select the main one | Multiple choice (single select) |
Not all transport types listed here are currently supported on the platform. The data mapping tool will automatically match your selection to the closest available option. Collecting this information now allows for more detailed filtering and helps you capture data for transport types we plan to introduce in the future. |
5. Do you use more than one means of transportation for your commute?
Please input yes/no | Multiple choice (single select) | Yes/No |
6. What's your secondary means of transportation getting to work? (if applicable)
Only applicable if you answer yes to the previous question | Multiple choice (single select) |
Not all transport types listed here are currently supported on the platform. The data mapping tool will automatically match your selection to the closest available option. Collecting this information now allows for more detailed filtering and helps you capture data for transport types we plan to introduce in the future. |
7. What is the approximate total daily round trip distance of your commute?
Provide numbers only and select the units in the next question. Input 0 if you are unable to estimate the distance | Number | — |
8. What unit was the provided distance in?
Choose from km or mi | Multiple choice (single select)
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How can I improve survey response rates?
Not all of my employees responded to the survey
What matters for the calculation of your Employee Commute emissions is the proportionality between the different modes and not the absolute numbers.
Example: You’ve got the following responses from 42 employees (see second column). What we’ll calculate to estimate your emissions is the proportionality, i.e. the share of people per commuting option (see third column).
Even if you extrapolate the numbers (let’s say you got only 42 out of 50 responses), you’ll see that the proportionality doesn’t change (see fourth and fifth column).
| Responses total: 42 out of 50 | Share / Proportionality | Responses - extrapolated | Share / Proportionality of extrapolated numbers |
Bike or Walk | 30 | 30/42 = 0.71 or 71% | 30/42 * 50 = 36 | 36/50 = 0.72 or 72% (rounding difference) |
Public Transport | 10 | 10/42 = 0.24 or 24% | 10/42*50 = 12 | 12/50 = 0.24 or 24% |
Own Car | 2 | 2/42 = 0.05 or 5% | 2/42 * 50 = 2 | 2/50 = 0.04 or 4% (rounding difference) |
Sum | 42 | 100% | 50 | 100% |
Of course, the higher your response rate is, the more accurate your results are, and with this, not only are your emissions totals more accurate, but your decarbonisation actions will be more effective.
From a statistical point of view, here are some thresholds that you should ideally reach in terms of responses, based on the number of employees you send the survey to:
Number of Employees | Minimum # of Responses | Number of Employees | Minimum # of Responses |
10 | 10 | 120 | 92 |
20 | 19 | 150 | 108 |
25 | 24 | 175 | 120 |
30 | 28 | 200 | 132 |
35 | 32 | 250 | 152 |
40 | 36 | 300 | 169 |
45 | 40 | 400 | 196 |
50 | 44 | 500 | 217 |
55 | 48 | 600 | 234 |
60 | 52 | 700 | 248 |
65 | 56 | 800 | 260 |
70 | 59 | 900 | 269 |
75 | 63 | 1000 | 278 |
80 | 66 | 1200 | 291 |
90 | 73 | 1500 | 306 |
100 | 80 | 2000 | 322 |
110 | 86 | 2500 | 333 |
How to boost survey completion
We all know that filling in employee surveys can be challenging so here are our top tips to help you to motivate more people to complete your survey.
Send out your survey via multiple channels if applicable (e.g. announcements by email, intranet, and your organisation's communication platform).
Merge with other surveys you send out to reduce the burden on employees. Just make sure to only input the relevant data points into the commute transformer.
Set and communicate a clear timeline by when employees should respond (max. response timeframe ~ 5 working days).
Think about when people are most likely to fill in a survey - schedule it accordingly when you send it out. Maybe experiment a bit.
Send one or two friendly reminders.
Show appreciation for the time people take to fill in your survey.
We hope these tips help you to reach the highest response rate possible.