Overview
The Employee module estimates emissions from commuting, working from home and, optionally, meals. It is based on a survey sent to employees, with extrapolation for those who do not respond so that the full headcount is covered.
Key use cases
Measuring commuting and working-from-home emissions from primary employee data
Ensuring 100% headcount coverage even with partial survey responses
Running the same process for GHG Protocol and BEGES-R
What this module covers
The module covers emissions from:
Commuting
Working from home (heating, air conditioning electricity consumption and refrigerant leaks)
Meals (optional)
All employees receive a survey and provide their commuting, teleworking and lunch habits, which are used to compute the emissions of each activity.
For employees who do not answer, emissions are extrapolated using a standardised proxy persona. This persona is a conservative profile built from a mix of Greenly and public averages. It ensures 100% headcount coverage while keeping a clear separation between primary survey data and estimated secondary data.
How the module works
Each option selected by an employee (for example a meal type, a commute mode or a home-heating type) defines an identifier, which is then used to select the matching emission factor.
How emission factors are matched
EFs are selected by filtering on:
Identifier: depends on the option selected by the employee. For example, if the employee selects "vegetarian meal", the module filters all EFs identified as vegetarian-meal EFs.
Methodology: GHG Protocol or BEGES-R
Country: among the pool pre-selected by identifier and methodology, the EF with a matching country ID, or a default that uses the UN region to find the closest geography
Year: among the remaining pool, the EF with the closest year
Emission factor sources
IEA for electricity consumption
IPCC GWP for refrigerant leaks
Outside electricity and refrigerants: Base Empreinte for French and BEGES-R options, UK Defra for the UK and GHG Protocol, US EPA for the US and GHG Protocol, and some country-specific databases for specific options (for example Swiss, Dutch, Swedish or Finnish databases)
FAQs
What happens for employees who do not respond to the survey?
Their emissions are extrapolated using a standardised, conservative proxy persona, so the full headcount is covered while primary and estimated data stay separate.
Are meals always included?
Meals are optional in this module.
Which methodologies are supported?
The module supports both GHG Protocol and BEGES-R, and the methodology is one of the filters used to select the emission factor.