4.3 Mobility
Business travel
SQS certifies sites worldwide. The majority of audits are carried out on site. This is the main reason why emissions from the mobility of auditors are by far the biggest driver of emissions. In 2024, they again accounted for over 90% of total emissions. Of these, just over three quarters were attributable to air travel.
Travel behaviour is now similar to that before the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of kilometres flown in 2024 falling slightly to 1.447 million kilometres (compared to 1.484 million in the previous year). Our membership of IQNET, the world's largest network for conformity assessment bodies, enables us to reduce business travel abroad. It allows us to engage auditors living in the region or even locally for an audit.
In terms of mobility on the ground, the ratio between mobility options changed significantly in 2024. The number of kilometres travelled by private car increased by over 60% to around 1.65 million kilometres in 2024, compared to around 1.01 million kilometres travelled in 2023. For 2024, this corresponds to emissions of just under 220 tonnes of CO2e. The emissions for the use of public transport were estimated using expense reports and a proxy. They therefore decreased by around 5% to just over 24 tonnes of CO2e.
In December 2024, we held the first of several workshops with BHP to tackle the challenge of mobility emissions. Selected SQS employees took part in the workshop, which was moderated by BHP. The aim was to develop ideas on how our mobility can be made (more) efficient for the environment, employees and customers. As a result, we are caught between the conflicting priorities of customer satisfaction, the expertise and availability of the auditors and environmental criteria.
Commuter traffic
To determine the emissions for commuting to work, we regularly survey commuter traffic through an online survey. The last such survey was conducted in 2023. For 2024, we adjusted the employee figures to create an extrapolation. The majority of commuting kilometres were covered by private car - around 60%. This meant emissions of around 42 tonnes of CO2e. The remaining 40% of commuting by public transport, bicycle or on foot caused around 2 tonnes of CO2e.
