Which employees typically need to report sea commuting?

Staff based on islands or coastal locations where a ferry crossing is a normal part of the home-to-work journey. For most mainland office-based organisations this activity won't apply at all.

How do we estimate distance for a ferry route?

Use the published route distance from the ferry operator's timetable or website, combined with the frequency reported in your employee travel survey.

Does a car-passenger ferry crossing count differently to a foot-passenger one?

Yes - record whether the employee travelled as a foot or car passenger, since the platform's ferry subtypes distinguish between the two.

Is this likely to be material enough to survey separately?

Only if you have a meaningful number of employees commuting by sea. Most organisations without island or coastal sites can skip a dedicated survey question for this mode.

How does this differ from client ferry transport in the Trips pages?

This page is for staff commuting (Category 7). Ferry transport for clients on an organised trip belongs on 'Trips: In-trip transport' instead, which sits in a different scope and category.

Activity data·Employee movement

How to measure emissions from Employee commuting: Sea

Employee commuting: Sea covers ferry and other sea-crossing journeys between an employee's home and workplace - relevant for island, estuary or coastal operations - under Scope 3 Category 7. Because ferry operators rarely provide organisation-level commuting reports, this is almost always collected through an annual employee travel survey covering route, frequency and whether the employee travelled as a foot or car passenger.

Scope: Scope 3 Category 7
What activity data you need: passenger.km, £ Spend, $ Spend
Activity data: Employee movement

What counts as Employee commuting: Sea

Ferry and other sea travel between an employee's home and their workplace, relevant for organisations with staff commuting across water - island, estuary or coastal routes - as a regular or foot-passenger commute.

A smaller-volume commuting mode for most organisations, but material for island-based or coastal operations. Distinct from 'Business travel: Sea' (Category 6, work-purpose journeys) and from the ferry entries under 'Trips: In-trip transport', which cover client transport for tour operators rather than staff commuting.

How to collect the data

An employee travel survey - covering route, frequency, and whether the employee travelled as a foot or car passenger - is typically the only practical source, since ferry operators rarely provide organisation-level commuting reports. Passenger.km is the preferred unit where distance is known; spend on season tickets or single fares is a fallback.

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: Sea activity data typically maps to Scope 3 Category 7 under the GHG Protocol. Confirm organisational boundary and ownership before reporting.

Scope 3 Category 7

By emission scope

Scope 3 Category 7

Compliance frameworks

Compliance & reporting frameworks

Sub-types available in the platform

All 5 sub-types available in the platform.

Ferry
Ferry: Car passenger
Ferry: Foot passenger
Sea Travel: Average
Sea travel: Average: UK

Common questions

Which employees typically need to report sea commuting?: Staff based on islands or coastal locations where a ferry crossing is a normal part of the home-to-work journey. For most mainland office-based organisations this activity won't apply at all.
How do we estimate distance for a ferry route?: Use the published route distance from the ferry operator's timetable or website, combined with the frequency reported in your employee travel survey.
Does a car-passenger ferry crossing count differently to a foot-passenger one?: Yes - record whether the employee travelled as a foot or car passenger, since the platform's ferry subtypes distinguish between the two.
Is this likely to be material enough to survey separately?: Only if you have a meaningful number of employees commuting by sea. Most organisations without island or coastal sites can skip a dedicated survey question for this mode.
How does this differ from client ferry transport in the Trips pages?: This page is for staff commuting (Category 7). Ferry transport for clients on an organised trip belongs on 'Trips: In-trip transport' instead, which sits in a different scope and category.

Next step

Start benchmarking your Employee commuting: Sea footprint

Apply matching emission factors in Compare Your Footprint and compare your footprint against sector peers.

Start free trial

Related in this cluster·Employee movement