Technical Notes 2025, Issue 17 - East Dunbartonshire Council Employee Travel Survey

• Council approved the Climate Action Plan’s (CAP) Evidence and Options Report on 28 September 2023 (EDC/011/23/NU), which included a net zero target of 2036 for the Council’s direct emissions and emissions from electricity in addition to a net zero target of 2045 for all other emissions. In approving the Evidence and Options Report, Council also agreed to adopt a series of recommended actions that are necessary to meet these targets and noted that the detail of the delivery responsibilities for each action would be developed in the forthcoming Draft CAP.
• As set out in the Evidence and Options report, and noted in the most recent CMP (EDC/049/24/RS), the CAP will extend the scope of the CMP to support the achievement of the Council’s net zero targets by reporting on area-wide emissions and extending the boundaries of the Council’s corporate carbon footprint to include emissions from additional areas such as employee commuting.
• An annual Employee Travel Survey is therefore necessary for the Council to deliver on this extended reporting while also driving forward various actions from the Evidence and Options Report and the Sustainability and Climate Change Framework such as developing a Corporate Travel Plan and working towards achieving ‘Cycle Friendly Employer’ status.
• In addition to helping to deliver against the net zero targets set by Council, estimating employee commuting emissions will also help to prepare the Council for an anticipated extension and standardisation of statutory emissions reporting across Scotland.
• More specifically, The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2015 requires all public bodies on the ‘Major Players’ list - including the Council - to submit an annual Climate Change Report to Scottish Ministers, detailing compliance with the climate change duties. Additionally, East Dunbartonshire Council established a commitment to annual greenhouse gas emission reporting was introduced through the 2015 Carbon Management Plan (CMP) with the 8th report published in December 2024 (EDC/049/24/RS).
• Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) launched an investigation into the effectiveness of the systems in place to support local authorities in their duty to contribute to the delivery of national climate change targets under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. This investigation led ESS to submit a series of recommendations to Scottish Government including a call for mandatory reporting of scope 3 emissions.  Scottish Government published an Improvement Plan which noted that a revised amendment order will be published with further information on required scope 3 emissions reporting including employee commuting.[1] 
• The Statutory Guidance will provide further information on how the revised Public Bodies Climate Change Duty (PBCCD) reporting should be carried out. These changes are intended to standardise the sources of emissions that are captured in local authority corporate emissions and extend the boundaries of corporate emissions measurements to incorporate additional areas into statutory annual reporting.
• The Council Employee Travel Survey will therefore help to prepare the Council for such changes by allowing the Council to include estimated emissions from commuting in the 2024/25 Carbon Management Plan (CMP) and the 2024/25 Public Bodies Climate Chage Duty Report.

East Dunbartonshire Council Employee Travel Survey

• Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) have commissioned Travelknowhow to offer Councils in the Greater Glasgow Area consultancy support in developing their workplace travel planning measures.
• The Council have been working with TravelKnowHow to design a new employee travel survey that would allow the Council to estimate emissions using Zero Waste Scotland’s Commuter Emission Calculator while also gathering information on current modes of travel and identifying barriers to sustainable transport for employees. This information will be used to help to inform the development a Travel Plan Strategy for the Council while the results of the travel survey will be published in the Council’s CMP.
• The online Employee Travel Survey is live from the 29^th of January until the 19^th of February and can be accessed via the following link Employee Travel Survey 2025

[1] Scottish Government Improvement Plan - Response to Environmental Standards Scotland Investigation - Climate Change Delivery Improvement Report