What is Scope 3 Category 6: Business travel?
Category 6 covers emissions from work travel taken by employees in transport you do not own or operate. It typically includes flights, rail, taxis, hotels, and hire cars, depending on what you include in your boundary.
What is Scope 3 Category 6: Business travel?
Category 6 includes emissions from employee travel for business purposes, where the vehicles and services are provided by third parties. This usually means capturing travel activity (distance, trip type, class of travel) and applying emission factors for each mode, plus any associated components like accommodation where relevant.
This category is different from Scope 1 (fuel you burn in your own vehicles) and Scope 2 (electricity you purchase). It is also different from Scope 3 Category 7 (Employee commuting), which covers travel between home and the usual workplace rather than business trips.
Examples of Scope 3 Category 6: Business travel
Common examples include:
- Flights (domestic and international, often split by cabin class)
- Train travel (intercity and local rail)
- Taxis and ride-hailing services
- Hire cars and mileage in personal vehicles for work trips (where not counted in Scope 1)
- Hotels and other overnight accommodation
- Work-related ferry travel and other public transport
How to calculate Scope 3 Category 6: Business travel
Most organisations use an activity-based approach:
- Collect business travel activity data by mode (distance, trips, spend, nights)
- Split by geography or class where it materially changes emissions (for example, flight class)
- Apply mode-specific emission factors
- Add accommodation emissions if included (nights by hotel type or region, or spend-based factors)
- Sum across all trips for the reporting year
In practice, teams often combine data sources:
- Travel management platforms and booking tools
- Expense systems and corporate card data
- HR or finance records for travel policies and volumes
- Supplier reports from travel providers (where available)
How to reduce Scope 3 Category 6: Business travel
Because travel is driven by how teams collaborate and sell, reductions usually come from practical policy and planning shifts, for example:
- Replace some trips with remote or hybrid meetings where outcomes stay the same
- Prioritise rail over air for shorter routes
- Set clearer travel decision rules (when travel is necessary, when it isn’t)
- Reduce premium-class flying where feasible
- Bundle meetings to cut repeat travel
- Work with travel providers to improve data and access lower-carbon options
You can set this out in a sustainable business travel policy - download our free tempalte here.
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