4.3 Mobility
Business travel
SQS certifies locations worldwide. Audits and verifications are mostly carried out on-site. This is the main reason why emissions from the mobility of the auditors are by far the largest driver of emissions. In 2025, they accounted for over 85% of total emissions. Of these, over 80% were attributable to air travel. The number of air miles for 2025 was 1.498 million, which represents a slight increase of around 3.5% compared to the base year 2024, which was 1.447 million.
In contrast, mobility on the ground changed significantly in 2025: the kilometers traveled by passenger cars (PC) fell by over 35% compared to the previous year. The number of kilometers traveled in private cars amounted to around 740,000 kilometers. As a result, emissions from business travel by private cars fell by almost 80 to just under 140 tCO2e. Emissions for the use of public transport were estimated using expense accounts and a proxy. They increased by around 10% compared to the previous year to just over 26 tCO2e.
Commuter traffic
To determine the emissions for commuting to work and from home office activities, we regularly conduct a commuting survey using an online questionnaire. The last such survey was conducted in 2023. For 2025, we adjusted the number of employees to extrapolate the results of the 2023 survey. According to the survey, the majority of the commuting kilometers of the Zollikofen office were covered by private car – around 60%. This resulted in emissions of around 42 tCO2e. The remaining 40% of commuting kilometers by public transport, bicycle or on foot only caused around 2 tCO2e.
In contrast, the commuting behavior at the Milan office, which was surveyed in 2025, is just the opposite. The office of the subsidiary SQS Italia S.r.l. is located in a central location near the main train station, so many employees use public transport. In 2025, only about 3% of the commuting kilometers were covered by private cars, the rest by public transport, bicycle or on foot. As a result, emissions from commuting in Milan were limited to around 2.5 tCO2e, including emissions from home office activities.
A commuter survey for both locations is planned for 2026, in order to be able to reflect possible changes in the next accounting period.
Transport of customers and visitors
Currently, we only consider the emissions generated by travel to and from our seminars (see above). In 2025, approximately 640 people participated in the seminars in Switzerland and 140 in Italy. Based on the collected data, this corresponds to an estimated total emission of just under 6.5 tCO2e. In Switzerland, around one-third of participants travelled to our seminars by car, but this accounts for almost 90% of the emissions (3.5 tCO2e). The remaining two-thirds, who use public transport, emitted just under 0.4 tCO2e. The assumptions regarding commuting patterns in Italy are identical to those in Switzerland. Emissions generated by the webinars themselves (e.g., energy consumption) are not currently being recorded.
