Have you considered calculating your carbon footprint? Maybe you are considering becoming carbon neutral. Perhaps you’re starting to think about your emissions reporting requirements. If you are in the supply chain of a larger organisation, you may be required to provide data for when they do their reporting. How soon should you start figuring it out? I’d start now!
One of the emissions sources that is included in an organisation’s emissions boundary but is not often considered very closely is staff commute (or, how much fuel do your employees burn while getting to work). In many frameworks, staff commute is an estimate calculated from vehicle type, the average number of days worked, and the average km travelled. To get this as accurate as possible, you could ask all your staff members how far they travel to work and which methods of transport they use, THEN you can start thinking of ways to reduce the distance travelled or use a more environmentally friendly transport method.
Remember, this isn’t about cutting out business related travel, like flying interstate for a meeting (although you should try not to do that either), but about how your staff get to work on a regular day. Although this can be difficult to influence (sometimes there’s just no other option, and, let’s be honest, people can be stubborn), options to reduce staff commute emissions are generally low cost and low effort, so it’s worthwhile pursuing. The 4 easiest ways to make a significant difference are these:
- Encourage active transport
- Encourage public transport
- Encourage carpooling
- Encourage working from home or hybrid work modes
Active transport just means walking or riding a bike. Heaps of people do it. Councils are much more proactive about engaging cyclists in city planning and there are many excellent bike safe routes in the city and suburbs. Consider installing end-of-trip facilities to incentivise riders such as lockable bike racks, bike repair kits, free e-bike charging, and don’t forget a shower and change room!
Public transport is always an option and should be encouraged where possible. You could subsidise transport fares for staff who commute via public transport. Moving people around ‘en masse’ attracts a 40-50% emissions reduction compared to private vehicle transport. It can have the added benefit of addressing your duty of care to avoid staff driving home fatigued after a long workday or a few knock off drinks.
Help staff to self-organise a carpool. This might cost a little administrative time, but the payoff can be huge. It might also help to offer an incentive, such as vouchers (free morning coffee, or fuel discounts), to encourage people to participate. Benefits for staff include saving on travel expenses (fuel, vehicle wear and tear etc), improving social networks, and/or extra snooze time (if you’re not the one driving). Benefits for the company include a more cohesive workforce, more relaxed employees, and of course, less emissions.
Of course, the most obvious, and easiest way to reduce staff commute emissions is to stop staff from commuting. Where possible, consider allowing staff to work from home. This not only saves transport emissions, but may also reduce on site emissions from energy use, and has time and cost savings for the employee.
Don’t forget to include your staff in decision-making! Everyone likes to be consulted, especially when the outcome may affect them, so have a brainstorm session and ask people what they think. But don’t forget to follow up on what was discussed and implement some of their ideas. No-one likes to have wasted their time going to that brainstorming session that got shelved, and you’ll have a much harder time getting people involved next time.
It should be noted that staff commute emissions will reduce organically over time as vehicle fuel efficiency improves and more staff upgrade their private vehicles to EVs. You could support EV uptake through education sessions or offering salary sacrifice programs. Weigh up the costs of these incentives against the cost of purchasing future carbon offsets or large capital expenses for your business. You will find that small costs now will reduce the amount you will need to pay in the future.
