EN3.3
Greener Travel – Commuting or Changing Fleet
Travel
Environment
Greener Travel – Commuting or Changing Fleet
Reducing travel or replacing travel methods for commuting to and from work with less harmful alternatives.
When considering commuting to and from work by road, choosing less harmful alternatives could include:
- Working from home, telecommuting rather than travelling to the office.
- Changing the type of fuel used in your car.
- Changing your car for an electric vehicle or hybrid model.
- Taking public transport instead of taking the car.
- Walking or cycling instead of taking a car.
Organisations and individuals could also consider offsetting any carbon emissions generated from their travel, if travelling is unavoidable.
Organisations using vehicles as part of their day to day business (e.g. businesses working in delivery, logistics etc.) could consider replacing fleet vehicles with more energy efficient alternatives such as hybrid or Electric Vehicles (EV).
Key Value
A value of £252 per tCO2e or 25.2p per kgCO2e
Different commuter activities produce different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Greener Travel means reducing travel or replacing travel methods with less harmful alternatives. Organisations and individuals could also consider offsetting any carbon emissions generated from their travel, if travelling is unavoidable.
Where does this headline value come from?
Carbon values in £2020 prices per tonne of CO2: central series for 2023 is 252£. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-policy-appraisal/valuation-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-policy-appraisal-and-evaluation
The CO2e conversion factors are all sourced from the UK government Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
The monetary value of carbon comes from “BEIS updated short-term traded sector carbon values for policy appraisal, £/tCO2e” (updated in 2018).
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/carbon-valuation–2
How to measure Greener Travel – Commuting
If you’re starting, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate but requires the least effort, whereas Silver and Gold give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort-to-accuracy indicator; choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Estimate the average commuting journey you aim to replace with a greener method. Estimate the replacement method. Deduct the replacement journey CO2e calculation from the original journey CO2e calculation to find your estimated CO2e amount. Times this by the cost of carbon per tCO2e to find your monetised cost of carbon.
Travel by road
Measure any greenhouse gas emissions – or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – using proxy values, depending on the activity involved.
Benchmark current usage by calculating the approximate mileage travelled in an average size car using petrol.
1 mile travelled = 0.27436 kgCO2e
1 kilometre travelled = 0.17048 kgCO2e
Calculate the equivalent mileage travelled in a vehicle producing fewer carbon emissions. Refer to latest conversion factors for the relevant passenger vehicle at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
Then deduct from the total kgCO2e travelled by petrol car.
Here’s an example
Example 1: Swapping an average petrol car for an average plug-in electric vehicle
Normal commute to and from work is 20 miles, formerly travelled in an average size petrol car: 20 * 0.27436 = 5.4872 kgCO2e per day.
Commute to and from work of 20 miles in a plug-in electric vehicle: 20 * 0.10934 = 2.1868 kgCO2e per day.
Carbon saving per day = 5.4872 – 2.1868 = 3.3004 kgCO2e.
Carbon saving per year by swapping to a plugin-in electric vehicle (assuming 252 working days per year) = 3.3004 * 252 = 831.7008 kgCO2e.
Value of carbon saving = 831.7008 * £0.252 = £209.6 per year
Example 2: Telecommuting from home instead of driving to work in an average petrol car
Carbon saving per year by working from home instead of driving a petrol car 20 miles per day:
5.4872 * 252 = 1,382.7744 kgCO2e.
Value of carbon saving working from home =
- 5.4872 * £0.252 = £1.38 per day
- 1,382.7744 * £0.252 = £348.46 per year
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Adjust your estimation by being more specific about the type of vehicle being replaced, and the type of vehicle it will be replaced with, including size of vehicle and fuel type.
At silver you are aiming to gain more accuracy in your estimation so you should measure:
- Approximate mileage, car size (small, medium, large, sports) by fuel type (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric)
- Approximate mileage, plane travel by type
| UK petrol car average miles per gallon | 36 mpg |
| UK diesel car average miles per gallon | 43 mpg |
| All electric cars get mpg equivalent | 132 MPGe |
4.55 litres to the gallon in UK =
8 (approx) miles to the ltr – petrol
9.5 (approx) miles to ltr – diesel
| Car type | Diesel (kg CO2e) | Petrol (kg CO2e) |
|---|---|---|
| Small car - km | 0.13931 | 0.1408 |
| Small car - miles | 0.2242 | 0.2266 |
| Medium car - km | 0.16716 | 0.17819 |
| Medium car - miles | 0.26902 | 0.28676 |
| Large car - km | 0.20859 | 0.27224 |
| Large car - miles | 0.3357 | 0.43812 |
| Average car - km | 0.16983 | 0.16391 |
| Average car - miles | 0.27332 | 0.26379 |
When considering remote or home working as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from travel, consider deducting the emissions generated from equipment usage and heating the home during working hours from any emissions saved. The UK government provides a proxy value in the Homeworking tab of its Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for emission multipliers.
Here’s an example
Example 3: Telecommuting from home instead of driving to work in an average petrol car, allowing for emissions produced from homeworking
Carbon saving per year by working from home instead of driving a petrol car 20 miles per day:
5.4872 * 252 = 1,382.7744 kgCO2e.
Carbon emissions produced by home office equipment and heating:
0.34075 * 36.3 average working hours per week * 52 weeks = 643.1977 kgCO2e
Total carbon saving per year working from home:
1382.7744 – 643.1977 = 739.5767 kgCO2e
Value of carbon saving working from home:
739.5767 * £0.252 = £186.37 per year
Find the latest values at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At Gold level, record the actual amount of miles traveled, or not traveled due to working from home, the actual vehicle type and fuel type.
At the Gold level, you would be expected to measure more accurately using more specific data, for example:
- Actual road mileage travelled (e.g. from telemetry data from devices installed in vehicles etc.)
- Actual car size (small, medium, large, sports) and fuel type (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric)
If considering homeworking, you should consider collecting actual electricity used by homeworkers using data from their fuel bills.
| Value Type: | Activity |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, while others are specific interventions that have a set value. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
|
What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| PN06/20 Categories: |
|
What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
