ESG for remote and hybrid teams

ESG for a remote company looks different from ESG for an office-based one. Your environmental footprint is usually small and dominated by business travel, rather than heating and electricity. Your social section is often strong, because flexible working, wellbeing and inclusion are things buyers and investors look for. The one tricky area is homeworking emissions, which you should treat honestly rather than ignore.

Hybrid working is now normal. The ONS found that 28% of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked in early 2025. ESG frameworks have mostly caught up, but the details can still trip people up.

What does a remote company’s carbon footprint include?

Start by listing what the business actually pays for or controls. For a typical remote or hybrid team, that is:

• Co-working memberships or a small office, which bring a share of electricity, heating, water and waste
• Business travel, including flights and rail for client visits, conferences and team get-togethers
• Company vehicles, if any (rare for remote teams)

Under the GHG Protocol, electricity in space you use is reported as Scope 2, gas heating as Scope 1, and business travel as Scope 3.

A worked example: a 12-person fully remote software company with no office. Over a year, the team meets in person four times, with half the team travelling by train and one person flying down from Edinburgh twice. Two people fly to a US conference. Using the 2026 UK government factors (approximate), the rail comes to well under half a tonne, the domestic flights to around half a tonne, and the two transatlantic returns in economy to about 2.6 tonnes. Their reported footprint is roughly 3.5 tCO2e, and about three quarters of it is one conference.

That is the pattern for most remote businesses. Long-haul flights dominate.

How should you treat homeworking emissions?

This is where you need to be straightforward with readers.

When your team works from home, they use extra heating, lighting and electricity for laptops and screens. The GHG Protocol’s Scope 3 guidance lists teleworking emissions as optional, reported under employee commuting, and asks you to count only the extra energy used because of work, not the household’s normal use.

The ESG Now footprint includes an estimate of homeworking emissions. It works this out from your full-time equivalent staff and the days they work from home, and shows it as a separate line labelled as an estimate. That keeps it clear which figures are measured and which rest on broad assumptions about people’s homes.

For a fully remote team, homeworking can be a meaningful source, sometimes larger than everything else in the report put together. If you want to understand or check the estimate, the method is:

1. Count the full-time equivalent hours your team works from home in a year.
2. Apply the homeworking factors from the UK government conversion factors, which cover office equipment and heating per working hour.
3. Report the result as its own line and label it as an estimate.

Our guide to estimating working-from-home emissions shows the calculation step by step.

What social information do remote teams need to show?

This is often the strongest part of a remote company’s ESG report. Buyers and investors want evidence that a distributed team is properly looked after.

Health and safety. HSE is clear that employers have the same health and safety responsibilities for home workers as for any other worker. That means a risk assessment covering stress, display screen equipment and the working environment. If you have five or more employees, your health and safety policy must be in writing anyway, so make sure it mentions homeworking.

Wellbeing and connection. Regular check-ins, mental health support, and in-person meetups. Note what you offer.

Equipment and costs. A home office allowance, equipment provided, or help with broadband. These are easy wins to report.

Training and progression. Remote staff can miss out on informal learning. Recording training hours shows you have thought about it.

Inclusion. Remote hiring often widens your talent pool beyond one city. If you monitor diversity, even through a simple voluntary survey, include it.

Pay. Whether you pay the Real Living Wage, and whether pay is set consistently regardless of location.

What governance matters most for a distributed business?

Governance for remote teams leans towards data and accountability.

• Data protection. Staff handling customer data at home need clear rules. Your UK GDPR approach belongs in the report.
• A code of conduct that covers remote behaviour, communication and use of company equipment.
• A named ESG lead. Without an office manager, it is easy for nobody to own it.
• Supplier choices. For a remote software business, your biggest suppliers are often cloud and software providers. Noting that you ask about their environmental commitments is a simple governance point.

Is remote working automatically greener?

Not automatically, but usually. Removing an office takes away most of a small firm’s heating and electricity footprint. Removing the commute removes those emissions too.

Against that, heating a dozen homes all day in winter can use more energy than heating one shared office, and remote teams often travel more for occasional get-togethers. Whether a remote team is greener overall depends on how far people travel to meet and how often.

The honest position is the one to report: your reported footprint is low, here is what it covers, here is what it does not, and here is how homeworking was estimated. That is far more credible than claiming to be “carbon neutral because we have no office”. Our greenwashing entry explains why.

How to produce a remote team’s ESG report quickly

ESG Now asks how you operate (office, remote, hybrid, or office plus physical products) and adapts. If you are fully remote, it skips the premises questions. If you use co-working, it estimates your share of the building from your desks and days used, so you do not need bills.

See roughly how long it will take:

How long will yours take?

Pick the option that sounds most like your business. You will see a realistic time, what to have nearby and a head start on the questions.

Which sounds most like you?

Sole trader working from homeConsultants, designers, developers, coaches10 to 15 minSole trader or freelancer in a co-working spaceA desk at a WeWork, Regus or local hub10 to 15 minSmall team in a co-working or serviced officeStartups and agencies with 2 to 25 people15 to 20 minSME with its own office and no vehiclesProfessional services, tech firms, studios20 to 30 minSME with vans, cars or regular staff travelTrades, field services, consultancies on the road30 to 45 minShop, cafe, workshop or product businessRetail, hospitality, makers and manufacturers30 to 45 min

Your estimate

About 15 to 20 minutes

Around 40 questions, most of them multiple choice

Quick, and investors love seeing it.

No utility bills needed. You will add a few details about your team, such as training and benefits, which is the part investors and grant assessors tend to look at closely.

Handy to have nearby

• Your headcount and number of desks or memberships
• A rough idea of team trains and flights last year
• Any staff benefits you offer
• How your team usually gets to work

Missing something? Estimates are fine, and you can come back to any answer later.

Most small teams find they are doing more good things than they realised. The report puts them in writing.

Start with this profile

First report free. No card needed.

You get a shareable ESG report and a private action plan with prioritised actions and data improvements. The methodology appendix sets out exactly what is in and out of your footprint, including homeworking, so nobody reading it is misled.

Your first report is free. Start your free ESG report, then read our guides to business travel emissions and co-working desk footprints for the two sources most remote teams need to get right. The small businesses page covers the wider picture.