The carbon footprint of an office-based business

An office carbon footprint is mostly made up of two things: the gas used to heat the building and the electricity used to light and run it. Business travel, waste and water make up the rest. For a typical small office, heating and power together account for well over half the total, and you can estimate both from your floor area if you don’t have the bills.

That last point matters, because a lot of office tenants never see an energy bill. The landlord pays, recharges it through the service charge, and nobody thinks about kWh until a customer sends a sustainability questionnaire.

What makes up an office carbon footprint?

For an office-based business, these are the usual sources:

• Heating (Scope 1). Usually a gas boiler. If the building is heated electrically or by a heat pump, this folds into electricity instead.
• Electricity (Scope 2). Lighting, computers, kitchen, air conditioning, lifts if you’re metered for them.
• Business travel (Scope 3). Trains and flights to clients and events.
• Waste. General waste and recycling collections.
• Water. Supply and wastewater treatment.

Commuting and staff working from home also belong to the wider picture. They aren’t part of the office itself, but the ESG Now footprint estimates both, and our guide to working-from-home emissions shows how the homeworking estimate is worked out.

How do you measure office energy if the landlord pays the bills?

Work down this list and stop at the first one that works:

1. Your own meter. If you have a sub-meter or your own supply contract, the kWh figure is on the bill.
2. Ask the landlord or managing agent. Request the building’s annual electricity and gas use in kWh and your share of the floor area. Larger landlords often already track this for their own reporting.
3. Estimate from floor area. Multiply your office size in square metres by a published benchmark. CIBSE TM46, the standard UK reference, gives a typical general office about 95 kWh of electricity and 120 kWh of heating per square metre per year.

When you email the landlord, keep it short and specific. Ask for annual kWh for electricity and gas for the building, the period it covers, the total floor area, whether the electricity is on a renewable tariff, and where general waste goes. Five questions, one reply, and you’ve filled most of your footprint with measured data. If you share a floor with other tenants, ask whether your unit has its own sub-meter, as some do without the tenant knowing.

The floor-area route is less precise, but it’s an accepted method and far better than leaving a blank. Label it as an estimate and replace it with real data when you can.

A worked example: a 15-person office of 150 square metres

Here’s a 15-person accountancy practice in a 150 square metre office. Energy is included in the rent, so there are no bills. It has two 240 litre general waste bins and two recycling bins, all collected weekly.

These figures use rounded 2026 UK government factors and published benchmarks. They are approximate.

Source	How it’s estimated	Emissions
Heating	150 m² × 120 kWh = 18,000 kWh × 0.182 kg	3.28 t
Electricity	150 m² × 95 kWh = 14,250 kWh × 0.131 kg	1.87 t
General waste	About 2.1 tonnes a year to landfill × about 520 kg per tonne	1.08 t
Recycling	About 1.3 tonnes × about 4.7 kg per tonne	0.01 t
Water	15 people × about 9.3 m³ × about 0.36 kg	0.05 t
Total before travel		about 6.3 tCO2e

Add a few train trips and the odd flight and this practice will probably land somewhere between 7 and 9 tonnes. That’s around half a tonne per person, a useful benchmark to quote.

Two details from this example are worth acting on:

• Waste route makes a big difference. The waste line assumes general waste goes to landfill. If your contractor sends it to energy recovery, the factor drops to under 5 kg per tonne and that tonne of emissions mostly disappears. Ask them. It’s often on the invoice or their website.
• Heating beats electricity. Even with the lower 2026 grid factor, a gas-heated office produces more from its boiler than from everything plugged in. Heating controls and timers are the cheapest place to start.

How can you cut an office carbon footprint?

You don’t need a capital budget to make a dent. The changes that usually pay back fastest are:

• Tighten heating controls. Check the timer matches when people are actually in. Turn it down a degree. Stop heating empty meeting rooms.
• Switch to a REGO-backed renewable tariff if you control the supply. Your market-based Scope 2 figure falls to zero. If the landlord controls it, ask what tariff the building is on. See our explanation of location-based vs market-based reporting.
• Switch off overnight. Monitors, printers, kitchen equipment. A simple end-of-day routine is free.
• Fix the waste route and separate recycling. Fewer general waste collections and a contractor that avoids landfill both show up immediately.
• Set a rail-first travel policy. For UK journeys, train emissions per passenger are a fraction of flying.
• Ask about LED lighting when you renew the lease or the landlord refurbishes.

If you’re looking for funding to go further, many councils run small green business grants that ask for exactly these figures. Our guide to green business grants in the UK lists current examples.

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 20 to 30 minutes

Around 50 questions, most of them multiple choice

Still comfortably under half an hour.

You will add your electricity and gas use, plus a quick estimate of your bins. If you do not have the exact figures, the questionnaire works them out from your floor area instead.

Handy to have nearby

• A recent electricity and gas bill (or your office size in square metres)
• How many general waste and recycling bins you have
• Headcount and a rough idea of business trains and flights
• How your team usually gets to work

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

Office-based firms usually have clear, low-cost ways to cut their footprint. Your action plan will list them in order.

Start with this profile

First report free. No card needed.

What if you share a building or work in a serviced office?

If you’re one of several tenants, ask for the building’s total energy use and divide by your share of the lettable floor area. If you rent desks in a serviced or co-working space, the better approach is to estimate from desks and days used. Our guide on accounting for a co-working desk walks through that method.

How does ESG Now calculate an office footprint?

The questionnaire asks for your electricity and gas use, or your office size if you don’t have bills. It then asks about bins and collections, water, any company vehicles, air conditioning top-ups, business travel, commuting and homeworking, and, optionally, what you spend on goods and services. Every line in the report shows the activity, the factor and the result, and is labelled as measured, estimated or a data gap. You’ll also get a private action plan with your reductions in priority order.

Commuting, homeworking and spend-based purchases are rough estimates and are labelled that way. It doesn’t cover inbound freight paid for by suppliers or downstream categories such as the use of products you sell, which rarely apply to an office-based SME.

Office-based firms with no vehicles typically finish in 20 to 30 minutes. If that’s you, start your free report, or read more on our small businesses page.