Homeworking emissions: a business estimation method

Download the blank record. Record commuting legs on the commuting survey. Add the estimate to the footprint data pack.

What a homeworking estimate shows

The estimate models the extra electricity for office equipment and the extra heating used because someone worked at home rather than in an office. It uses the Homeworking sheet in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) 2026 conversion factors, which reports homeworking as Scope 3 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) working hour. The factors are a UK average.

Under the GHG Protocol, including teleworking in Category 7 is optional, and only energy that would not have been used anyway should count.

Reading and accepting the assumptions below does not verify the result. The record is a plain CSV with no formulas.

Download the record

Save a copy of the blank file and type into the copy.

• Blank record, homeworking-record-blank.csv
• Fictional example, homeworking-record-example.csv

Columns: person_serial, period_start, period_end, reporting_year, home_working_hours, office_working_hours, overlap_hours, overlap_resolution, component, factor_dataset, factor_sheet, factor_row, factor_cell, factor_unit, factor_kg_co2e_per_unit, kg_co2e, include_in_total, row_state, evidence_reference, assumption_acknowledged, uncertainty_note, state_note.

Use a serial number, not a name. Detailed hours stay with whoever runs the record and are not published.

Home hours, office hours and overlap

• home_working_hours are hours actually worked at home in the period.
• office_working_hours are hours worked at the office or elsewhere.
• Travelling to the office on a date does not cancel separate hours worked at home on the same date.
• overlap_hours are hours claimed as both home and office. Any unresolved overlap makes the row overlap_blocked and it is not counted.
• Enter the hours actually worked. A part-time person’s hours are entered as worked and are not multiplied by an FTE fraction.
• A blank hours cell is missing_hours. A typed 0 is a valid zero.
• An annual tonnes-per-person figure with no hours is invalid_annual_figure and is not used.

Other row states are counted, invalid_hours and unsupported_year. When a row is not counted, kg_co2e stays blank.

Components and assumptions

For each person and period, use either one combined row, or the separate office_equipment and heating rows. A combined row alongside a component row for the same person and period is component_conflict and neither counts.

The government guidance says the heating factor already averages heating and non-heating months, so it is applied to all home hours in the year. Do not adjust for winter. A figure for March is a modelled estimate using that annual average, not March’s actual heating.

The DESNZ methodology paper, section 15, lists the assumptions behind the factors. They include a 140 W workstation, 10 W of lighting, gas heating in every home, heating from October to March for ten hours a day, and extra heating caused by 66.7 percent of staff. assumption_acknowledged records that you have read them.

Worked example: documented hours for March 2026

Northgate Services is fictional. The hours are invented.

Counted total: 25.91440 + 15.54864 + 16.19650 + 0.64770 + 0.00000 = 58.30724 kg CO2e.

Limits and sources

The estimate is not a household energy bill, not a measurement and not evidence of a reduction. The 2026 factors are for 2026 hours. Other years need their own factor set. Commuting is recorded separately on the commuting survey, and Category 7 sits alongside the other scopes described in the scope 1, 2 and 3 guide.

Sources:

• DESNZ, conversion factors 2026, full set, Version 1, Homeworking sheet.
• DESNZ, 2026 conversion factors methodology paper, section 15.
• GHG Protocol, Scope 3 calculation guidance, Category 7, teleworking paragraph.