Overview
Part of your carbon footprint is estimated based on your employees' habits. The Greenly employee questionnaire gathers this information to calculate the carbon footprint of your company's employees, which constitutes an important source of your Carbon Report's Scope 3.
The survey is a short, 5-minute questionnaire of 38 questions across four sections: personal sensibility towards the climate, commutes, work meals, and remote work. The more employees who contribute, the more precise your GHG measurement — so broad participation matters.
💡 For business travel, use the Business Travel and vehicle fuel consumption module instead of the employee survey.
Key benefits / use cases
Capture a significant, often underestimated share of your Scope 3 emissions
Improve the accuracy of your overall GHG assessment through primary data
Engage employees directly in your company's climate strategy
Identify concrete reduction levers (commuting, remote work energy, meals)
Fill gaps automatically: unanswered surveys are extrapolated from reliable proxies
1. What's included in the survey
The questionnaire is divided into 38 questions across four sections:
Personal sensibility towards the climate — employees' awareness and attitudes
Commutes — how employees travel to and from work
Work meals — lunches on working days
Remote work — working-from-home habits and home energy
Before configuring the survey, you can use the Demo to preview all the questions without any answers being recorded.
2. Methodology: how emissions are calculated
The survey focuses on three main emission topics: commuting, remote working, and meals.
Commuting
Commuting is a significant factor in the environmental footprint. The survey captures the total distance travelled by each employee to and from work, across transport modes such as walking, biking, scooter, metro, train, and car. To ensure accuracy:
Modes of transport: Each mode is accounted for with its specific emission factor.
Carpooling and fuel types: For car users, emissions are adjusted based on the number of carpoolers and the type of fuel used.
Survey responses and proxies: Emissions are first calculated from survey responses. For unanswered surveys, we use proxies based on an INSEE study and the number of employees reported in each building, considering the city type to estimate distances and transport modes.
Remote working
As remote working becomes more common, its impact matters. The survey addresses this through:
Working days at home: Employees report how many days they work from home.
Energy considerations: The heated surface area and the home energy source are taken into account.
Survey-specific data: Only employees who answer the survey and specify remote working are included — no proxies are used here.
Meals
For clients following the Bilan Carbone methodology (optional for the GHG Protocol), the survey also evaluates emissions from employees' meals:
Daily lunch emissions: Calculated for one meal per working day, both on-site and remote.
Type of lunch: Vegan, vegetarian, red meat, white meat, or fish — each with accurate emission data.
Reporting standards: Meal emissions contribute to "other emissions" for BEGES V5 and GHGP. They are not part of the company's Carbon Footprint itself, but can be included in the report to enhance reduction actions and raise awareness.
Next steps
Ready to set up and send the survey to your team? See The Employees: survey and training for the step-by-step platform guide.