The Green Office: A Business Guide

Chapter 7. Reduce Travel Costs

Travel and commuting costs, using employees’ own vehicles, public transport or commercial airlines, all form part of an organisation’s tertiary carbon footprint.

It is difficult to correctly estimate the CO₂ emissions caused by staff commutes. The starting point is that each gallon of petrol burned releases approximately 18 kg of CO₂ into the air; this figure will be worse if the car is running on underinflated tyres, has roof racks and other fittings that reduce fuel efficiency, or is driven quickly or abruptly. Larger, less fuel-efficient vehicles will obviously get fewer miles per gallon of fuel and will have a worse environmental impact than smaller cars.

As a rule of thumb, a 5-mile commute (i.e. a 10-mile round ...