ESG & CO₂: employee commutes in reporting

From 2025, the CSRD directive (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) covers an increasingly broad group of companies in the European Union. One of the most challenging elements of reporting is Scope 3 emissions, those arising outside the company's direct control. Employee commutes constitute a significant portion of these emissions.

What is Scope 3 and why do commutes matter?

Greenhouse gas emissions are divided into three scopes:

• Scope 1: direct emissions from owned sources (e.g., company fleet, furnaces) • Scope 2: indirect emissions from purchased electricity and heat • Scope 3: other indirect emissions, including employee commutes

For many service and manufacturing companies, employee commutes account for 10 to 30% of total Scope 3 emissions. This is a category that is relatively easy to measure and reduce, making it an attractive target for ESG action.

The data problem

The biggest challenge in reporting commute emissions is the lack of data. Companies typically do not know how employees get to work, what distances they cover, or how much CO₂ their daily routes generate.

Traditional data collection methods, such as surveys, are inaccurate and quickly become outdated. Employees change addresses, routes, and transportation habits. A one-time survey produces a picture that no longer reflects reality after a few months.

How inOneCar solves the reporting problem

inOneCar automatically collects data on every shared ride: route, distance, number of passengers, and saved CO₂ emissions. This data is available in the admin panel in real time.

What exactly the system measures:

• Total kilometers saved through shared rides • Amount of CO₂ not emitted compared to individual commutes • Average car occupancy rate • Monthly and quarterly trends • Data broken down by location and department

Reports can be exported in formats compliant with CSRD and GRI Standards requirements. The ESG department receives ready data without having to manually collect information.

Concrete numbers

The average employee in Europe commutes approximately 25 km one way to work. Over 220 working days per year with a typical passenger car, this generates approximately 2.2 tons of CO₂ annually from commuting alone.

When two employees commute together instead of separately, emissions drop by half. With three people in the car, the reduction reaches 66%. A company employing 500 people, with 30% using carpooling, can demonstrate commute emission reductions of 100 to 200 tons of CO₂ per year.

These are not estimates. These are real data that inOneCar automatically calculates based on every registered ride.

Carpooling as part of ESG strategy

Carpooling is not the only solution, but it has several unique advantages in the ESG context:

• Speed of implementation. Effects visible from the first month, without the need for infrastructure investment. • Measurability. Every ride generates concrete data. • Scalability. The program grows organically with the number of users. • Additional social benefits. Employee integration, lower commute costs, better job accessibility.

For companies just beginning their ESG reporting journey, carpooling is one of the easiest and fastest solutions to implement with immediate, measurable impact.

How to start?

Implementing carpooling with ESG in mind requires three steps:

1. Create a company group in inOneCar and invite employees. 2. Collect data for a minimum of 3 months to obtain representative results. 3. Export reports and include data in ESG documentation.

The entire process requires no specialized technical knowledge or large financial outlays. The inOneCar admin panel guides you through every step.