Glossary›Emissions accounting and measurement›Employee commuting emissions (Category 7)
Glossary term
Cluster D · D43
Tier 2
Employee commuting emissions (Category 7)
Definition
Category 7 covers the emissions of employees travelling between home and their place of work in vehicles the company neither owns nor operates, and, where the company elects to include it, emissions from teleworking. The company has no transaction record of any of it, which makes this the category most dependent on survey data and estimation.
· Appendix B, Scope 3 measured per the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard · first disclosed in the second reporting period
On this page
In practice
Category 7 is the clearest illustration in the whole standard of a figure that is inherently estimated and is meant to be. There is no invoice. The company knows headcount, location and working pattern, and nothing else, unless it asks.
The three practical methods, strongest first.
Method
What it needs
A commuting survey
Sampling employees on distance and mode, extrapolated across headcount by site. The strongest of the three, and the one the assurer will test for response rate and representativeness.
Published averages
National or state average commuting distances and modal split applied to headcount by site, with the source cited.
A per-employee factor
The simplest, and acceptable, provided it is disclosed as what it is.
All three are acceptable to the GHG Protocol. What is not acceptable is an undisclosed one.
Working from home is where this category has become contentious since 2020. Including teleworking is optional. A company that includes it typically applies an assumed household energy draw per remote working day, which requires a stated assumption about days worked from home. Change that assumption and the number moves sharply, which makes it a judgement worth putting in the significant judgement register rather than burying in a spreadsheet.
What the assurer does with it
The assurer accepts that this number is estimated and does not test it as though it were metered. What they test is the method and the population.
They agree headcount used in the calculation to the payroll records already subject to financial statement audit, by site and by period, including part-year starters and leavers. They test the survey: response rate, whether responses were representative by site and role, how non-respondents were extrapolated.
They accept a documented survey with a stated response rate, or a published average applied consistently with its source cited. They reject a headcount that does not agree to payroll, a survey with a response rate too low to extrapolate from and no acknowledgement of that, and a teleworking assumption that changed between years with no restatement and no note. Expect the estimation uncertainty around this figure to be discussed rather than the figure itself.
Commonly confused with
Business travel. Home to office is Category 7; office to client is Category 6. A salaried employee driving their own car to a client site on company business is Category 6, and if the company reimburses the kilometres that reimbursement is the evidence.
Timing and relief
The standard Scope 3 position applies. Scope 3, and therefore this category, may be omitted from an entity’s first annual reporting period under AASB S2 Appendix C paragraph C4(b), and under paragraph C5 the entity may keep relying on that relief when presenting the relieved year as comparative information in later periods. Group 1 first discloses Scope 3 for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, Group 2 from 1 July 2027 and Group 3 from 1 July 2028.
Sources
1
Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, full text
GHG Protocol
2
3
Review status
Review required
Last reviewed
15 September 2026
Editorial pass, unsigned
Reviewer required
Carbon accounting specialist
Next scheduled review
1 July 2027
Part of
Cluster D, Emissions accounting and measurement
49 terms from the head term carbon accounting down to individual Scope 3 categories and the mechanics of factors, boundaries and data quality. The largest cluster in the glossary.
Related terms
The other employee travel category, split by journey type
The disclosure that carries the teleworking and survey assumptions
Where the days-worked-from-home assumption belongs
Related questions
Can we estimate Scope 3 and still pass assurance?
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Yes. Estimates are expected in Scope 3 and are not a problem for assurance in themselves, because what fails is an undocumented estimate. The practitioner tests whether the method is appropriate and disclosed, the inputs are traceable, the application is consistent, and the estimation uncertainty is described honestly.
How do we work out which Scope 3 categories are material for us?
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You screen all fifteen GHG Protocol categories, estimate each roughly off accounts payable spend, and document why you included or excluded each one. The screen is the deliverable as much as the answer, because the practitioner will test the reasoning behind an exclusion at least as hard as the numbers behind an inclusion. Expect the answer to be concentrated in a handful of categories.
What evidence do we need for each emissions number?
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Every reported number needs a source document you did not create for the report, the activity data drawn from it, the emission factor and its published edition, and the calculation joining them. Fleet fuel needs litres from fuel card statements, electricity needs kWh by site from retailer invoices with the matching state factor, and refrigerants need kilograms by gas type from service records.
Other terms in this cluster
Employee commuting emissions (Category 7)