Travel emissions fall mostly under Scopes 2 and 3 for Focus as we do not have company cars for all staff.

Historically, only driven business mileage was formally logged, but in 2021, we started adding estimated data on other work related travel for inclusion in our new website carbon footprint ‘ticker’.

Historic ISO14001 certification held by our Midlands offices excluded London travel – which we require for base line establishment. This is likely to be mostly public transport for that office but will likely comprise tube and national rail – which have different emissions factors. Another problem is the date at which business travel data is obtainable. Late posting of expenses can affect the monthly data accuracy, although this evens out over a year. We find we require revisions to posted ‘ticker’ data as figures become available.

Public transport has a reduced but still measurable impact, so as we encourage more public transport use, it becomes increasingly important to report this. We currently include an estimate per office; under PAS2060 this method is justifiable where there is relative inaccessibility of primary data: the ongoing challenge is to improve estimate accuracy without disproportionate administrative intervention. We note travel is increasing now COVID restrictions are relaxed, and must be reflected in estimates. This is necessarily a work in progress to be as transparent as accurate as possible.

Commuting data relies on estimated home to office distances across employees and can vary hugely – it is unlikely we will ever have perfect data for this: I for one do not always use the same method of transit.

Travel for suppliers and carriers of consumables will fall under Scope 3; emissions for these may also need estimated mileages where they do not offer this information from their own records. Our influence will be limited in this area.