Employee carbon footprint: home-to-work travel

Transport is the leading source of employee emissions (33%). The daily "home-to-work" commute is the first lever we can use to drastically reduce our employee carbon footprint. In the current context, it is essential to rethink these trips, while avoiding making them too constraining or more expensive!

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1. What does the home-to-work commute emissions category correspond to?

This emissions category includes all the trips you make to get to your workplace and then return home, whether you take the bike, car, train, or metro.

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2. Discover the impact of your home-to-work commutes on the climate!

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, discover with the simulator below:

• The amount of CO2e you emit for your "home-to-work" trips
• The amount of CO2e you save per year by working from home

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3. Key figures on home-to-work commutes

• Commutes (home-to-work and business trips) account on average for 33% of an employee's carbon footprint, making it the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the employee carbon footprint.
• Today in France, 70% of home-to-work commutes are made by car.
• Solo driving - driving alone - is on the rise: according to the Vinci Autoroutes barometer, 85%, or nearly 9 out of 10 drivers are alone in their car for their daily commutes.
• Even when the home-to-work distance is very short, less than 1km, a large part of employees go by car (42%) (in 2021).
• The median distance of home-to-work commutes was 12.5 km in 2019.
• The individual car alone accounts for 16% of total French greenhouse gas emissions, and the transport sector is the most polluting (⅓ of greenhouse gas emissions)

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4. How to reduce the share of my employee footprint related to my home-to-work commutes?

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Opt for soft mobility if you can

The priority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to this category of the employee carbon footprint is to decarbonize your home-to-work commutes as much as possible.

The individual car should be avoided as much as possible, especially if you are alone in the vehicle.

If your workplace is well served, you can opt for public transport.

And even better, if your workplace is not too far away, walk or opt for the bike (electric or not), it will be beneficial on all points!

And if you are afraid of sweating,  know that more and more companies are installing showers and changing rooms in their premises and that you can quite make the request to your management.

💡 Good to know: some companies set up sustainable mobility allowances to encourage employees to favor soft mobility.

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Carpooling

In 2023, carpooling avoided the consumption of 8 million liters of fuel.

Another advantage: since January 1st, the French government grants a bonus of 100€ to drivers who start carpooling. If soft mobility is not possible to get to your workplace, you can carpool and benefit from this reward! This new national plan aims to reduce daily emissions from a driver: a full car indeed allows to divide its emissions by the number of passengers in the vehicle (and, as a bonus, lead to beautiful encounters 😉)

Good news: the democratization of carpooling works since the national carpooling observatory has counted 822,000 trips in October 2023 against 605,000 in October 2022 and 211,000 in October 2021.

💡 Good to know: the platform Klaxit allows the connection and financial transactions between drivers and users of the company for home-to-work trips.

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‍Work from home when possible

Since the pandemic, the use of remote work has exploded! In addition to offering a better quality of life to professionals who benefit from it, it is also good for the planet since according to a study by the ADEME, an employee who telecommutes makes 69% fewer trips in one day.

This is not negligible when we know the share of trips in the employee carbon footprint (33%). Asking your employer to use remote work more can be a way to reduce your employee carbon footprint. Be careful, in some cases, the use of remote work can lead to a rebound effect of increased distances traveled: for example, if you choose to move or if you multiply personal trips that you do not make without remote work (shopping, children, etc.)

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To go further:

• Guide to solutions for decarbonizing at work (including a focus on "travel")
• A study by INSEE on the use of the car in home-to-work commutes
• An ADEME article on action tracks in employee travel
• An article from Beev on the carbon footprint of home-to-work trips

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