Activity data·Employee movement
How to measure emissions from Employee commuting: Air
Employee commuting: Air covers flights an employee takes between home and their normal or temporary workplace - for example, staff flying to a hub office - rather than flights taken once already travelling for work. It sits under Scope 3 Category 7 and is usually captured through an annual travel survey (route, frequency, distance) rather than expense records, since most air commuting isn't booked through the organisation.
- Scope
- Scope 3 Category 7
- What activity data you need
- passenger.km, $ Spend, £ Spend
- Activity data
- Employee movement
What counts as Employee commuting: Air
Air travel between an employee's home and their normal or temporary place of work, captured as part of the organisation's employee commuting inventory. Includes flights taken for a regular or occasional commute - for example, staff who fly to a hub office - rather than air travel undertaken on a work assignment.
Category 7 commuting differs from Category 6 business travel: commuting is the home-to-work journey itself, while 'Business travel: Air' covers journeys made once already at or from work for a work purpose, such as client visits or conferences. If a single flight serves both a commute and a work trip, allocate it to whichever purpose dominates the journey rather than splitting or double-counting it. Sits alongside employee-commuting-rail and employee-commuting-sea as the non-road commuting modes in this cluster.
How to collect the data
An annual or periodic employee travel survey (mode, frequency, and route or distance) is the standard source, since air commuting is rarely captured by expense systems the way business travel is. Where the organisation operates a shuttle or books flights directly for commuting staff, use those booking records instead. Passenger.km from survey responses is the preferred physical unit; spend is a weaker fallback where distance data isn't available.
What activity data you need
Collect the most specific physical unit available. Unit definitions are in Appendix I — Description of Units.
- passenger.km
- $ Spend
- £ Spend
Which emission scope it falls under
Employee commuting: Air activity data typically maps to Scope 3 Category 7 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.
By emission scope
Compliance frameworks
Sub-types available in the platform
All 6 sub-types available in the platform.
- Air Travel: Average
- Air travel: Average: UK
- International air
- UK Domestic air
- UK Long haul air
- UK Short haul air
Common questions
- How do we usually find out which employees commute by air?
- Through an annual employee travel survey asking about commuting mode, frequency and route. This is the most practical way to capture air commuting, which rarely shows up in expense or booking systems.
- What if an employee flies home only at weekends, not daily?
- Record the actual frequency reported in the survey (for example, weekly rather than daily flights) so the activity data reflects real commuting patterns rather than an assumed daily journey.
- Does a relocation flight count as commuting?
- No - a one-off relocation flight is not a repeated home-to-work journey and falls outside the employee commuting boundary.
- How do we split a flight that combines commuting and a business trip?
- Allocate the journey to whichever purpose dominates the trip. If it's genuinely mixed-purpose, apply a documented rule consistently rather than deciding case by case.
- Is this required under SECR or just voluntary Scope 3 reporting?
- Employee commuting is typically part of voluntary Scope 3 disclosure rather than mandatory SECR reporting, though many organisations choose to include it for a fuller Scope 3 Category 7 picture.
Next step
Start benchmarking your Employee commuting: Air footprint
Apply matching emission factors in Compare Your Footprint and compare your footprint against sector peers.
Related in this cluster·Employee movement