Our professional services page covers who asks consultancies, accountants and law firms for carbon figures and the full list of sources. This post is about what that means in practice for a creative or consulting business where there's little to measure except people: how to count them, and what to do about it.
Three buckets
- People getting to work and working from home. Commuting is Scope 3 category 7, which a PPN 006 plan requires. Homeworking is optional but sits in the same category. Our posts on the commuting survey and homeworking emissions cover the data.
- People travelling for work. Client visits, shoots and pitches: Scope 3 category 6, also required.
- What you buy in. Freelancers, software, production and print: Scope 3 category 1. Not required in a PPN 006 plan, but in the example below the biggest bucket, and corporate clients asking for a full Scope 3 figure will expect it.
A worked example
A 15-person marketing agency in a shared office, in three days a week and home two, with illustrative figures. Travel and energy use 2026 factors; purchases use Defra's 2023 spend multipliers.
| Source | kg CO2e |
|---|---|
| Commuting by train, 8 staff, 25 km each way | 1,707 |
| Commuting by car, 3 staff, 15 km each way | 2,061 |
| Commuting by bus, 2 staff, 5 km each way | 280 |
| Homeworking, 2 days a week | 3,353 |
| Short-haul flights, 6 return trips of 1,000 km each way | 1,509 |
| Rail to clients, 10,000 km | 309 |
| Hotel nights in the UK, 20 | 208 |
| Share of office electricity, 12,000 kWh | 1,572 |
| Share of office gas, 8,000 kWh | 1,458 |
| Freelance designers, photographers and copywriters, £80,000 (0.13 kg per £) | 10,073 |
| Software subscriptions, £30,000 (0.10 kg per £) | 2,998 |
| Video production, £20,000 (0.13 kg per £) | 2,656 |
| Printing, £10,000 (0.35 kg per £) | 3,485 |
| Total | 31,668 kg, or 31.67 tonnes |
Split three ways:
- People (commuting, homeworking, travel): 30%
- Office energy: 10%
- Bought-in services and print: 61%
The bought-in figures are spend-based estimates, so they rise with what you pay as well as with emissions. Treat them as a first estimate and ask your biggest suppliers for their own figures. Our post on spend-based multipliers explains the method.
Where an agency can actually cut
- Flights. In the example, six short-haul return trips are 1.51 tonnes. The same distance by train would be about 0.37 tonnes. See train or plane and video calls instead of travel.
- Commuting. A season ticket loan or cycle to work scheme can help car commuters switch to lower-carbon modes.
- Suppliers. Ask your main freelancers and production partners for their own figures, and favour those who measure.
- Office energy. Small here, but a renewable tariff, or an office that has one, is a simple change to show a client.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling includes the government homeworking factor, commuting by car, rail and bus, flights entered by airport code, and hotel nights by country. Upload your purchase ledger, or connect Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or FreeAgent, and it suggests a Defra multiplier for each supplier account, freelancers and software included. Your Carbon Reduction Plan and, for larger firms, your SECR report come from the same figures, with tonnes per employee available as the intensity ratio. Our post on intensity ratios explains the choice. If a client sends a questionnaire, the free questionnaire answer bank drafts the answers.